Lightning and Wind
by Born of Prayers
Summary: A To Aru Majutsu no Index Fanfic that takes place after New Testament volume 2, where Leivinia Birdway has led Kamijou Touma, Index, and Misaka Mikoto to Hawaii to deal with the activities of GREMLIN, where the meet up with Lessar and a few others
1. Prologue

Prologue

Looking over the sea of clouds were three people who were unique individuals of the world. Though they existed on opposite sides of the world, they all had the same destination and rode on the dime of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight. Hawaii was the location of the enemies that occurred because of the end of the war between Science and Magic.

One of them was munching down several flight trays of food at an astonishing rate. She possessed a photographic memory and housed 103,000 grimoires. Bearing the sorcery name _Dedicatus545—The lamb devoted to protecting the wisdom of the strongest,_ one of the greatest assets of the church of necessary evil, _Necessarius_, and subconsciously housing the power that could rival a Majin. Her name was _Index Librorum Prohibitorum_, or Index for short.

Sitting across from her with a small smile on his face was her guardian and protector. The former number one enemy of the Roman Catholic Church, the man who risked his life to save others, the hero of WWIII to the Magic Side, and enemy to GREMLIN. Wielding a right hand that can nullify any supernatural phenomenon with a single touch, even an Archangel; he walked between the lines of science and magic_. The Imagine Breaker_, Kamijou Touma.

Sitting next to him and tapping her finger on the armrest, with an impatient look on her face, was a terrifying figure that drove fear into the hearts of delinquents and anyone using electronics while in she was around. She went to great lengths to protect her sisters and to rescue the spiky-haired idiot from the battlefield of Russia, only to have met with low success, but never giving up. Known for her signature, _The Railgun_, was Misaka Mikoto.

_I'm surprised I managed to get out of Academy City so easily_, Mikoto thought to herself, as she watched Kamijou with one eye closed. _Ever since the war ended, it feels like something has changed in the city._

"Touma, Touma!" Index called out to him after finishing off the last tray. "We need more food!"

Kamijou sighed. "Index, if you keep burning through meals, Birdway's going to go bankrupt."

Not deterred by his words, Index called for the flight attendant to bring her more food. Kamijou muttered 'Such misfortune' under his breath and left her to be content with running up the Dawn-Colored Sunlight's tab.

"Hey," Mikoto finally spoke up, "so explain to me why we're all going to Hawaii? You never did go into detail about what you've gotten yourself into again."

"Touma, why is the short-hair coming too? She's from the _other _side and shouldn't get involved."

"Well, even if you say that, she was insistent on coming." Kamijou said with a nervous look on his face. _Although I don't know why either_.

"Like it or not, I'm coming." Mikoto told Index while her bangs gave off a spark of bluish-white electricity. "This idiot can't be left on his own anymore. And quit dodging the question."

"Mi-Misaka, you can't use your power here while we're flying! Are you trying to send us crashing!" Kamijou panicked. Her power was dangerous, as she was the third Level 5 esper in Academy City. Crashing a plane was a possible outcome if her power was released in the air.

"Touma, you really shouldn't get anymore girls involved." Index told him with a small frown on her face. "The enemy this time is unknown, even to me. Short-hair can get hurt if she gets involved."

"Stop calling me short-hair, glutton."

"Touma, she called me a glutton!"

"Now, now," he tried to calm the nun and the electric princess. "Misaka made it clear she wouldn't be left behind this time. It'd be best if you told her about Magicians, since that's your field."

"No," Index told him in defiance. "She insulted me! I'm a nun, accusing me of one of the deadly sins is blasphemous! Short-hair can hear it from someone else!"

_Since when_? Kamijou wondered to himself. He sighed and tried to explain what he could about the Magic Side, but he wasn't really getting anywhere. He may have been fighting on both sides, but he was originally from the Science Side and needed someone from the other side to help explain.

"So basically, these people use a different set of laws similar to our 'Personal Realities' to create supernatural events?" Mikoto summed up his ten minute attempt in a few words. "I've got to say, that's hard to believe."

"Touma was the same way when we first met," Index sighed. "Since all of you grew up at the center of the Science Side, you deny any miracle outside of science. He didn't believe me until he stripped me with his right hand."

"Huh?" Mikoto let out a few more sparks involuntarily at the mention of him stripping her. "Are you a pervert?"

"It was an accident!" Kamijou Touma said, raising his hands in innocence. "Her clothing was made by magic and my right hand nullified it. I thought she was lying and she challenged me."

"Oh, Touma!" Index said, interrupting the interrogation that was about to occur. "I just remembered that Necessarius contacted me before we left! They said they were sending someone over to help us."

"Really?" Kamijou closed his eyes in thought. "Considering the threat, it'll probably be Stiyl, huh?"

There was once a Magician who promised to protect a certain girl, who had to have her memories wiped to survive. He failed to accomplish this goal, and his role was taken by another, who succeeded. Instead of falling to grief, he redefined his Sorcery Name, _Fortis931_ — _I Prove Why My Name is the Strongest Here_, to protect the world around her.

That teenager who walked an ash-covered road of flames was Stiyl Magnus. To protect that girl, he would burn the living to death and the dead to ashes. It seemed natural that he would go to protect her.

However, he was a little _tied_ up at the moment. Literally.

"Mmnghpf!" Stiyl tried to speak, but his mouth was bound and gagged. His arms and legs were bound by numerous spiritual items to prevent him from moving. He was lying on the floor of a large room, watching a battle unfold between two powerful factions of the church of necessary evil. The unconscious bodies of the Agnese Forces mixed in with a few of the Amakusa Catholics littered the ground, as the two sides clashed over who would go with the Imagine Breaker.

"For Itsuwa's loveeeeee!" The Amakusa, minus Tatemiya who was recovering from a sword wound inflicted in his poor attempts to become the Protagonist, charged to give Itsuwa a chance to be next to Kamijou Touma, who everyone thought had vanished in the Arctic Ocean. She wasn't fighting, but tending to Tatemiya at the moment.

"For Agnese to repay her debt for the Civil War, we must be victorious!" The Agnese Forces had noticed Agnese's growing attraction to the boy, and under the guise of 'repaying their debt', had decided to send her.

The two forces clashed. The Amakusa were trained in combat and each one could take down numerous nuns, but they were still outnumbered four-to-one. It was a good thing that none of them were using lethal spells or weapons.

_Even when he's not here he causes problems_, Stiyl thought to himself. _As soon as I get out of here, Innocentius is going on a nun hunt_.

At that moment, the fighting briefly stopped as the Archbishop, Laura Stuart, entered the room. With one glance she assessed the situation from looking at Stiyl and did what she did best.

"Hold on a second," she told everyone in the room, as someone brought her a chair and popcorn. She sat next to Stiyl and started eating the popcorn. "Continue."

The battle began again, as enchanted feather dusters threw flames and steel wires shimmered in the light. Stiyl looked at the carnage and then at her and thought he really shouldn't have expected anything less.

"If only Kanzaki were here, it would have been her against the Amakusa supporting her apprentice, and the Agnese Forces. That would have been fun to watch." The Archbishop smiled at the thought.

_More like a one-sided slaughter_, Stiyl thought.

As the battle entered the final stages, Laura Stuart received a message. "It looks like the magic cabal _New Light_ was seen in the location that boy is heading to."

Standing on the rooftop of a hotel, wearing highly inappropriate sleeping garments, was the Magician Lessar of _New Light_. With her dragon tail accessory wrapped around one leg, she stared at the ocean underneath the moonlight.

"Once that idiot gets here, I'll show him the price of joining with Birdway's faction." Lessar spoke to the heavens. "I'll tempt and torment him until he can't take it anymore and then I'll give him treats and train him until he's a good boy."

"Hm?"Kamijou Touma felt a chill run down his spine and awoke from his slumber. "Why does it feel as though something dangerous is waiting for me at the end of this flight?"

The Kamijou Faction, Necessarius, and New Light were gathering to face against off against a new force in the world that threatened the balance of Magic and Science alike. And the one who bound them all was the unluckiest man in the world.

This could only end badly.

Lighting and Wind, a To Aru Majutsu no Index Fanfiction


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"This could be a problem," Mikoto grumbled.

Misaka Mikoto was in a crisis she had never faced before. The hotel they booked was packed for various reasons and, as expected with his luck, Kamijou Touma's room was now uninhabitable due an incident involving something unmentionable growing from the leftovers of the last guests. They sent maids and staff to deal with it, and when that failed Birdway sent some men in out of curiosity. In the end, Mark Space had to be dispatched to save them all and slay it.

"I don't know if that was magical or not, but it nearly won the battle," he told her.

So Kamijou Touma and Index, who were sharing the room, were now forced to move in with Mikoto for the duration of their stay. If it had just been the nun, it would have been fine. She probably would have been a better roommate than Kuroko and wouldn't molest her while she slept. At least that was what Mikoto thought, seeing as she doesn't know that Index tended to glomp on whoever was nearby while asleep, which was why Touma slept in the bathroom back in Academy City.

The issue was the fact that the person she secretly harbored emotions for was sleeping in the same room as her. What if she did something embarrassing while she slept?

Mikoto shook her head at the thought before speaking up. "So, what are we going to do about this?"

"Hm?" Kamijou blinked in confusion. "You mean about GREMLIN? Birdway said she'd meet with her contacts tomorrow, so we can take some time to look around the beach or—"

"I meant the room!"

"Oh, that." Kamijou scratched his head. "There are two beds, so you and Index will have one. I'll just sleep in the bathtub. It's bigger than the one at home anyway."

_So they don't share a bed_, she thought. "Sleeping in a hard bathtub isn't good for you back, you know."

"Well, considering the alternative—"

"Touma! They have snacks inside a tiny fridge!" Index ended the conversation with childish delight. "And this bottle has a colorful symbol on it!"

"No, Index! That's alcoholic!" Kamijou took the bottle from her hand and put it back, taking out another drink and giving it to her with a small smile on his face. Now that the war had ended, things between them were back to normal. Mikoto envied that close relationship.

How many times had he fought for her and then returned to her side like that? She had been next to him longer than Mikoto herself, walking next to him all of the way, through the numerous challenges he faced in the world of different laws than that of science.

Mikoto sighed. In this situation, she knew next to nothing about the Magic Side and wouldn't be much help when it came to facing an unknown enemy. On the other hand, she would be invaluable from what it seemed. Mikoto feared that she would be just as useless to him as she was in the war.

It's true she prevented nuclear missiles from being used, preventing a crisis that could have occurred. But in the end, she couldn't pull him away from that battlefield. It was just a miracle that he survived the drop into the Arctic Sea.

_Why did he go to that war in the first place_, Mikoto wondered. The girl named Birdway was too busy to tell her, and she really didn't want to ask Index out of pride as her rival. Asking him wouldn't feel right and would probably be too personal.

The swirling emotions that stirred her personal reality were starting to take on a heavy form that weighed her down. The weight called '_Doubt_'. She was sure of how she felt for him, but against Index, did she really have a chance in this scenario?

If Mikoto failed to get come to terms with that weight, it would eventually crush the pillar that supported everything that made her the person she was.

The morning came and the young dawn broke over the trees of the island. A young magician watched as birds scattered from the treetops and into the waking sky. Beyond her was the nature of her home at its finest, pure and untouched. And yet, the sound of early morning traffic came from the opposite side of her.

If in front of her was nature at its finest, then behind her was the absence of nature entirely. It was an asphalt world of man, crafted by the Science Side. A world filled with pollution and mockery, where the bounty of nature was defiled and trampled on for the amusement of those ignorant to the world's desecration.

In a world where magic and nature were being encroached by science, it wouldn't be long before the treasure in front of her was destroyed by the product of ignorant people, out of convenience. That was inevitable after the war to determine which side would prevail was lost.

She had participated in just one of the many unnamed and unknown battles that covered the world. She used her _Sorcery Name_ many times and somehow survived, all in the name of defending the Magic Side and nature. But it was all for naught.

Everything was loss because of one high-schooler, with a right hand that spit upon the mystic forces of the world, made by man, nature, or gods. That monstrous being in the form of a human shattered the balance and placed the society of science at the top of the world. He was the champion of the Science Side, capable of bringing even the Roman Catholic Church to its knees in defeat.

Imagine Breaker.

To defeat this monster of science, a new faction was born. It was a faction that found ways to combat the threat of the science, even if it had to use science to do so. It would swallow up the Science Side and itself, before returning to nature.

GREMLIN.

Now that the Imagine Breaker had arrived, she would lay the monster of science to rest. Her name was Poli, a young native of the island who had yet to see beyond black and white, science and magic. Without seeing the invisible strings behind the curtain of gray, the illusion of the true enemy was set in her mind.

Only time would tell if that illusion would be broken.

It was roughly noon when Kamijou Touma , Index, and Misaka Mikoto arrived on the beach near the hotel. Index was dressed in a modest, blue, one piece swimsuit befitting her nature as a nun. Kamijou wore black swim trunks, with stripes going vertically down the sides. Mikoto, however, wore a long T-shirt that went past her hips and down to her knees.

_I finally got to wear that Gekota swimsuit I bought,_ she thought to herself. _But Kuroko said it was childish. I'm kind of nervous about what he'd think about it._

While the trio was walking along the beach, Index stopped to get something to eat and had to wait half an hour before she could get in the water. Instead, she started burying Kamijou in the sand, wet sand to be exact. Mikoto watched from under a beach umbrella, still lost in thought. Once Index got bored, she found an inner tube and started swimming, ignoring Kamijou's pleas to dig him out as a group crabs closed in on him while he was unable to move because of how heavy the wet sand.

Mikoto took pity on Kamijou, after the first few crabs started clamping down on his head, and came over to free him from the sand. She rested her knees just beyond the top of his head and started removing the crabs, gently digging him out. "You probably shouldn't have let her bury you so close to the edge. If the tide started rising, you'd have to grow gills."

"I'm just letting her have fun while we can," he told Mikoto, as she was digging him out. "Between what happened in the war and what's to come, she needs to enjoy herself. She deserves that much."

"Oh," Mikoto said unenthusiastically, the doubt in her heart growing heavier. Kamijou was the type that rushed in to help even if you didn't ask, so meeting another girl he saved shouldn't be a surprise anymore. The problem was that she couldn't tell if he was interested in the girl that stayed with him out of friendship or romance because of his nature.

Kamijou noticed her low tone. "Misaka…are you okay? You've been different these last few days." He looked her in the eyes, his voice becoming more sincere. "Is something wrong?"

"…That's to be expected," she told him. "I'm just on edge because I'm involved in something I don't understand yet. It'll pass."

"Sorry," Kamijou apologized. He didn't like involving others if he could avoid it, and he once promised someone to protect the world around her. But he couldn't stop her this time.

If he left her behind, she would have followed him through her own methods and found him, like how she somehow managed to get to Russia. Along the way, she could have been attacked in some place where his fist couldn't reach. At least this way, he could look out for her.

_Although that guy will probably try to come after me again for this_, Kamijou thought. Etzali probably would hunt him down for this later.

Mikoto bent over, her shirt hanging down to just above his face, as she began to clear a good portion of the sand off his upper body using both hands. Her hands lightly brushed his chest, causing him to shiver slightly from the ticklish feeling. Mikoto blushed at the reaction and her hands stopped moving, resting on his chest.

_Did the mood get romantic suddenly? _Mikoto wondered.

"Misaka is surprised Nee-san has begun using more daring tactics, such as taking advantage of him while he is unable to move, Misaka reports in hope of ruining the sudden development."A familiar voice and speech pattern interrupted.

Mikoto removed her hands and looked up to see another Misaka. One of her clones, the 'Sisters', to be exact. However, this sister stood out the most compared to the others she met.

She had tanned skin, making her look more exotic than the others. She wore a short pink T-shirt over a yellow one piece swimsuit, both bright colors that matched the Flower Lei* around her neck. On her back was a yellow sling backpack, with a flower motif, while on her head were the goggles given to each sister, and in her mouth was a sucker.

"Another Misaka?" Kamijou asked.

She nodded. "Misaka is serial number #10142, responds Misaka while pointing in the distance towards the readjustment facility." Out of sight was an Academy City owned area that held a facility that was readjusting her to live a longer life. #10142 was staying there, but she heard through the network that Kamijou and her Nee-san were coming and wanted to meet them.

"Are you going for a partial Ganguro look?" Misaka asked, partly out of curiosity, and partly out of spite for killing the mood.

"This Misaka feels that adapting to her environment gives her a better chance at impressing that person, as she has received compliments from many other men when she walks on the beach, counters Misaka with confidence."

_This one has even more confidence than the other one_, Misaka Mikoto mentally noted. She was referring to Misaka#10032, also known as Misaka Imouto. Of all the sisters, that one probably had the lead in terms of affection.

While the Misakas were starting a light argument, Kamijou Touma managed to finally get his hands free and started digging the rest of his body out. Once he was free, he stood up and sighed. He unfortunately failed to notice a speedy figure running towards him, until it rammed him into the sand once again.

"How could you side with a faction _against_ the Royal family!"

Kamijou recognized the voice of the person on top of him, but asked anyway to confirm since his eyes had sand in them. "Lessar?"

Lessarwas dressed in a bikini, but she had a bag that sported the logo of New Light hanging over her shoulder. Her current position was being mounted on top of Kamijou's chest. She moved his right hand onto her body and had it touch her backside. "Can't you recognize this body by touch now?"

This, of course, caught the attention of the arguing Misakas. Mikoto was preparing to fry the seductress until she noticed the familiar hair from behind. It was during a exhibition in what could only be described as the biggest shopping mall in the world, the size of a city, where she met with a group called New Light.

"You're Lessar from the Daruma shop, aren't you?"

Lessar turned and looked at her. A smile grew on her face at meeting her once again. "Misaka Mikoto. How've you been?"

Index was having fun in the water, inside of an inner tube, blissfully unaware of Kamijou Touma's pleas of help as he was being attacked by crabs. She drifted further out in the sea, wishing Hyouka Kazakiri could have joined them on the trip. They had briefly met before Birdway's subordinates interrupted them and sent her away with the rest of the girls that Kamijou had attracted, including one she never met before dressed like she was half-cat or something.

_But that's Touma being Touma,_ she thought and let it drop.

Swimming around Index was a school of fish that seemed different than the other ones around the shore. She ignored them at first, but with each passing minute the fish seemed to get bigger and bigger. It was then that she closed her eyes and searched for something that shouldn't be there.

It was a vague feeling, something superimposed onto something else that shouldn't be there. The fish swimming around her were coated in that feeling. They weren't natural, but manmade somehow. And they were being directed by another source of power. In other words…

_A magician,_ Index concluded and started swimming back to shore.

She noted the fishes' physical features, markings, and the flow of the energy inside and surrounding them, while comparing them with the knowledge of the various the grimoires in her head. There was very little magical that she didn't know about because of them. But even if she couldn't find out what they were, as long as she could isolate the style of magic being used through analysis, she could counter it despite not being able to use magic on her own.

The fish began to change, or rather morph, into a more dangerous form that caught the attention of the other people in the water. They became sharks, a variety of them rather than a single species, but they all had a similar, distinctive pattern on their bodies that changed from when they were fish. That pattern was the key that allowed Index to finally figure out what they were.

_That pattern represents those worn by a group of the Kupua*, the Ka-poe-kino-mano* and Ka-poe-kino-ia to be exact. Most likely a magician etched those patterns onto a medium and created creatures with false life to serve them. If so, I should be able to intercept the spell._

Index opened her mouth to begin the _Spell Intercept_ and hijack control over the creatures that began circling her, when she was suddenly dragged down into the water by something wrapping around her leg. She looked to notice it appeared to be a large tentacle, possibly belonging to a large cephalopod. If it took her too deep, she would drown helplessly or be torn apart, as she couldn't speak underwater.

_Touma! Help!_ Index thought, but the words wouldn't come out of her mouth. Maybe by sheer chance, the tentacle stopped dragging her below and slacked up its grip. She flailed her arms as hard as she could until she breached the surface and screamed.

"TOUMAAAAAA!"

As Lessar was still straddling Touma, before she and Mikoto could catch up, all of them heard people screaming about sharks and coming in from the water. Touma forced Lessar up and looked towards the waves for any sign of Index.

"Misaka reports that according to the security measures installed by a lesser branch of Academy City, an electrical field that causes spasms in the shark's snout, is active in the area to prevent them from venturing into the shore, Misaka comments while doubting the failure of the safety system."

"No," Misaka Mikoto added to her sister's report. "I can sense the field as well, it's operating fine."

"Which means it's probably an enemy," Kamijou Touma yelled as he went through the crowd of people leaving the water to head towards Index's inner tube, which was floating in the water without her. He screamed her name, hoping to hear any response, while mentally cursing himself for thinking she'd be safe from an attack with so many people around.

"TOUMAAAAA," Index cried as she reached the surface, gasping for air.

"INDEX!" Kamijou screamed and swam towards her, into deeper water.

Index made it back to the inner tube and floated in a ring of sharks that were circling her like a defensive line. She was beginning to try _Spell Intercept_ again, when the tentacle grabbed her once again and pulled slightly, making her swallow water and cough. It was a warning that she would be dragged below if she interfered or tried to escape.

At this point, Index guessed that the reason she was released instead of being drowned outright was because she wasn't the main target. She was a valuable asset to any magician, and wouldn't be easily killed. She could think of dozens of ways for someone to retrieve her while she was helpless underwater using magic.

Instead, the assailant released her back to the surface after causing a commotion by creating sharks instead of something more subtle, driving away all parties except those involved. The shark circle was a net to catch the real objective, with her as the bait. The enemy was luring Kamijou Touma out to her. In the deep water, he would be ripped to shreds by the numerous sharks and pulled beneath the waves to a watery grave, where his right hand can't save him.

"Touma, it's a—" she tried to warn him, but was jerked below and allowed up again to breath.

_It's a trap for me then_, Kamijou worked out on his own. He came to the same conclusion, having seen how magicians work in the past, using methods of clearing a crowded area and then striking at him. _Those bastards took her as bait for that reason!_

He didn't care that they were coming after him. He knew that they would seek him out. But to get her or the others involved was crossing the line.

On the beach shore, Misaka Mikoto and #10142 were about to chase after him in the water when Lessar stopped them.

"Why are you stopping us," Mikoto asked, sparks coming from her bangs.

"Because, it's a trap meant for him," Lessar pointed out as someone else who had a magician's viewpoint. "More people jumping in carelessly will become a burden. Besides, if you use your electric attacks here, you'll fry him and the girl."

Misaka growled in frustration. "A trap for him…is it a magician?"

Lessar was a bit shocked at her knowing about them. Compared to the last time they met and she didn't know about the Magic Side, despite being caught up in it.

"Yes," she told the anxious Misaka, who seemed thrown off by the admission. "From the looks of it, he's got himself wrapped up in another incident. Letting him die would be bad if we could get him to serve the UK, so how about we work together again?"

Lessar pulled her Steel Glove out from the bag, despite it being three times the size of the bag itself, due to the properties of the bag as a spiritual item. "There are ten sharks and something else in the water. If you can make a platform for me to reach them, I'll create an opportunity for you."

#10142 took off her bag and pulled out a disassembled an Academy City FN P90C and quickly assembled it. "Misaka is not sure what is going on, but she'll help, says Misaka with weapon in hand."

The force consisting of Misaka Mikoto, Misaka #10142, and Lessar all banded together to strike down the oceanic threat against Kamijou Touma and Index.

This should be over quickly.

* * *

><p>Terminology:<p>

* Wreath

** Kapua: In Hawaiian Mythology they were trickster demigods or spirits, taking on whatever form they pleased. Each had a classification and there are several stories about individual Kapua acting as heroes or villains depending on the sources you go to.

*** Ka-poe-kino: Known as the _People Who Had *** Bodies_, whose bodies were made of different materials depending on the last words, _mano_ being shark, _ia_ being fish for examples. They are featured throughout Hawaiian Mythology, but in this fanfiction, they are similar to Sherry's Golems.

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

Okay, as you should know while reading this, it takes place after NT2 and with Railgun SS2 as part of canon, at least up to part 7, as part 8 isn't out at the time of this writing. Lessar and Mikoto will start to take the stage as the main protagonists, not Touma and Index, very soon. This is _Lightning and Wind_, not the _Grimoires That Break Illusions_.

* I should write that down for a future project*

Sorry if Mikoto seems angsty, girls are hard to write about as a guy and romance isn't my strong suit, so I apologize about that. This story has some touching moments, but it will primarily be an action story, as I have confidence in my battle scenes as an author.

As for Lessar, she might act like a Class-A tease, but she's very competent magician, when not up against monsters like Fiamma, and I intend to show that here in this story.

Lastly is Misaka#10142. Now with there being over 9000 of them left, it goes to say that many of them will not get the spotlight in the main series, and I wanted to showcase them as developing various personalities slowly since the end of the Level 6 Project, so this Misaka is hereby mine to corrupt however I choose.

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cough*

Thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Mikoto took a deep breath. Breathing out slowly, she called upon her personal reality and generated blue bolts of electricity from her body. The bolts dug into the sand below and around her, creating a wall of iron sand. She ignored the sound of the distance crowd's clamoring at the sight.

She extended her arms outward and slowly bought them together like she was squeezing the air, at the same time using magnetism to compress the sand into platforms of various lengths and sizes. Exhaling, she floated them over the water, creating a scene that looked like a level from a platforming game.

Lessar and Misaka #10142 leaped onto the platforms, feeling the top layer of iron sand shift between their toes, while the bottom layer was solid as rock.

"As expected of Nee-san, Misaka replies while testing the durability of the platform."

Lessar wasted no time or words, running along the platform towards Kamijou Touma and the _mano_. As she ran, she allowed the Steel Glove to drag in the water, carving a path through it. #10142 took a position at the center of the collection of platforms, on an elevated column of iron sand, with her weapon at the ready.

As the first wave of _manos_ cut through the waves towards Kamijou Touma, Lessar ran above and beyond the top of his head towards them. The four points of the Steel Glove curled like fingers, now gathering and balling the water up as it passed. The sphere of water grew to the size of a wheel, and then grew further as the water rolled over itself continuously, gathering more and more volume as it moved.

As the _manos_ approached the sphere of water, it swallowed them and trapped them. Inside, the _manos_ were constantly spiraling and helpless. With a small grunt, Lessar lifted the extremely heavy sphere of water and tossed it into the air with more force than possible for a girl her size. The sphere shattered into countless drops that rained down, leaving the _manos _airborne.

#10142 took aim at them and fired. The sound of the rapid firing, along with the shells hitting the iron sand, resonated on the beach. The _manos_ exploded into the blue sand upon no longer being able to maintain their form. The sand mixed in with the falling water and made a shimmering rainbow.

"That's two down," Lessar commented, placing the Steel Glove on her shoulder while her attention was turned to the sky.

Kamijou Touma looked at the girls with gratitude, until he noticed that another two _manos_ were cutting through the water towards Lessar, whose back was turned. He started to warn her, but they jumped out of the water and closed in her. Lessar noticed with her peripheral vision and turned, swinging the Steel Glove like a bat, knocking them into the iron sand platform.

Mikoto forced the portion of iron sand, where the _manos_ landed, into the form of a closed box, trapping them inside. She then commanded each individual grain of iron sand inside the box to vibrate at high-speeds. This forced the iron sand to chew through the _manos_ as if they were trapped in a shredder. A few seconds, she released the box and a pile of blue sand was mixed in with the black iron sand.

"Make that four down," Lessar said, revising her previous statement.

The remaining _manos_ split in different directions upon receiving a new command from the magician controlling them.

###

Index, who was unable to move without risking being dragged underwater by tentacle around her leg, looked at the three girls working in conjunction with each other. One of them was certainly a magician, using Norse principles after the Christianity influence had been instilled into it, adding elements that weren't present in the original.

The other two were Espers, from the Science Side. While they looked alike to an extent, one was using control over electricity and magnetism at a very high level, while the other was using weaponry belonging to the Science Side with precision that shouldn't possible without countless years of experience.

Two sides that normally opposed each other were now supporting each other in aiding Kamijou Touma, without any problems. Embracing their differences, they could become a faction consisting of both worlds, yet belonging to neither. A faction brought together by one with the ability to nullify miracles of science and magic alike.

"Huh," Index muttered as the tentacle around her leg curled its way up her slender body. It wrapped around her hips and waist, embracing her in tight grip. She struggled hopelessly, only to find herself being raised out of the water and into the air, along with seven other tentacles and the head of a giant octopus.

Index heard the startled screams coming from the gathering crowd watching the battle from afar, which were silenced as she felt another flow of magical energy placing them in a dreamless sleep.

###

"We've placed everyone under a sleeping spell," Mark Space told Birdway, who was looking at the enemy they faced in the sea. "Should we go and handle the threat?"

"No," she told him. "Start looking for the magician controlling it and make sure no civilians get hurt, otherwise it'll be difficult to deal with. The idiot's right hand will dispel it with a touch. In addition, he's got three cute girls helping him."

###

"Wow, that's bigger than I expected," Lessar said to herself.

"It's hard to believe something of this size just wandered in without anyone noticing, Misaka reports while wishing she brought a bigger gun." #10142 added.

"That's magic, right?" Kamijou asked Lessar, who nodded. "Then I just need to get close enough to touch it," he said, clenching his right hand.

"You say that," Lessar began, taking the Steel Glove and landing on a single iron sand platform surrounded by water far ahead of Kamijou, "but you'll have to get through the others first."

The remaining _manos _were heading to Lessar, who was the immediate threat. She smiled and placed the end of the Steel Glove into the water again. She gently spun on her toes in a circle, the Steel Glove grabbing the water and twirling it around her. She spiraled again and again, faster and faster, like a elegant dancer with a ribbon. She trapped the _manos _in a ring of water and raised both it, and the Steel Glove, into the air around her, like an oversized Hula-Hoop that refused to spill a drop of water.

With a flick of her wrist, the ring was sent towards #10142, who released fifty-thousand volts of electricity into it, destroying the _manos_. That left only the octopus, which held Index in its grasps. It raised one of its tentacles and sent it smashing down towards Lessar, who leapt out towards another platform, narrowly avoiding being smashed along with the iron sand platform, which scattered into the sea.

#10142 fired several rounds into the creature, but any damage they did was quickly reversed and regenerated. "Misaka really wishes she brought a bigger gun, Misaka replies while thinking of another strategy."

The creature raised seven of its tentacles with the intention of smashing everything in front of it. Lessar estimated that while she could avoid it, she wouldn't be able to save the rest in the process. In addition, judging by how fast it regenerated from the bullet wounds, she estimated that Kamijou's right hand would have to make contact with the main body for any real damage.

The towering pillars in the form of tentacles began their fall to earth and sea, leaving no time for Kamijou, and #10142, to escape. It seemed as though the two would be killed, when Mikoto finally spoke up.

"I'd feel bad if these were real animals. But I wonder, can you—" Mikoto stated, after reasoning that real creatures didn't turn to sand. She turned the iron sand platforms that weren't occupied into countless discs, which vibrated rapidly, above the group's head. "Recover from this!"

The discs flew through the air and sawed their way through the tentacles. Black iron sand mixed with blue sand once again, as the raining bits of flesh broke apart before reaching the water. However, the remaining tentacle was held out in front of it, using Index like a shield. The other tentacles would be fully reformed in less than a minute, and the majority of the iron sand was gone.

"Lessar," Kamijou called out, "can you get me over there?"

She looked at the Steel Glove. "If you raise your hand and avoid touching it, then I can do it."

Lessar plunged the Steel Glove into the water next to Kamijou, who raised his hands above his head. She repeatedly twisted it, the water gathering and clumping together as if it was made of something with a higher viscosity level. She then made one last effort to pull it, launching Kamijou Touma towards the creature with a spout of water, gathered from the waist down.

The octopus creature raised Index to intercept his right hand, when something tore a hole clean through both the tentacle and its head. It was a coin, coated in iron sand to increase the firing distance, fired at three times the speed of sound, and accompanied by a fierce gale. It was the technique that earned Misaka Mikoto her nickname_, The Railgun_.

Index fell down into the grasp of #10142, who manipulated the top portion of the iron sand platform she was on to float over to grab her. The platform was shrinking, bits of it falling apart and into the water, while slowly losing altitude. Eventually it gave out once they were near the shore, and both Index and #10142 fell into the shallow water.

"Controlling iron sand was much harder than Misaka expected. This, along with her signature technique, once again shows the differences in strength with Nee-san. Misaka will have to converse with the network about coming up with a technique of her own, Misaka reports after carrying the rescued hostage."

Kamijou Touma roared as his right fist smashed into the creature, which exploded in a cloud of blue sand, accompanied by the sound of shattering glass. This was the inevitable outcome of anything magical that confronted the Imagine Breaker.

The battle ended in victory.

###

The cleanup was left to the Dawn-colored Sunlight, who moved in after the creature's defeat. A cover story was drafted, saying that it was a demonstration on behalf of the Academy City branch nearby, with help from the Espers. People were skeptical, but there was no evidence to contradict this, and no one had been hurt.

Kamijou Touma thanked the girls, patting #10142 on the head, and headed back to the hotel with Index, who was being dragged while muttering about food, by Birdway to compare notes on the analysis of the magic used. Misaka #10142 left blushing, heading back to the readjustment facility, muttering about how got praised and would surpass Mikoto eventually in skill and affection.

That left Lessar and Mikoto alone, sitting at a café in the northern part of the city, miles away from the hotel. Mikoto said she had wanted to ask her some questions, but Lessar complained she was hungry from not eating before.

"I found this place yesterday," Lessar told Mikoto, before taking a bite out of a portion of cake. "They've got really good cake." She swung her legs in delight at the taste and ordered another two slices.

Mikoto had too much on her mind to eat, although she wasn't above ordering a soda to drink. "Is that so?"

Lessar closed one of her eyes and smiled before skipping to the point. "So, you want to know more about our side, right? Ask away."

Mikoto closed her eyes and thought. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and asked. "Tell me where the laws of magic originated from."

"There are various sources but, in short, the reason was because our ancestors wanted to accomplish something that gifted people could do, like naturally born Espers. Out of envy, the determined and desperate worked for the gift of magic instead of just wishing for it. The majority say that it was due to man devouring the fruit of wisdom from the Garden of Eden, but that's because Christianity is the most common and powerful religion.

"The magic that I use is based off Norse legends, where Odin hung himself for nine days and nights from the World Tree, Yggdrasil, along with sacrificing one of his eyes to drink from Mímisbrunnr, Mímir's well. He gained the knowledge of the Runes, which eventually became one of the staples of my homeland's magic, along with Seid, through the use of hamingja, or life-force. This is similar to the concept of Mana in terms of processing.

"Incidentally, our group use the version corrupted by Christian influences, such as changing Baldr to a representation of the Son of God, or Loki to Satan. It makes it easier to use spells and adds things not normally found in the old system." Lessar took a deep breath before adding, "That being said, I do know of a few of the old ways."

"So basically, the laws come from myths and legends?"

"That's the main theory. It's easier to base spells off established legends, compared to starting from scratch. Also, you Espers are limited to one power per person, right?"

"Normally," she answered. There were exceptions, such as the researcher who managed to accomplish what was thought to be impossible, _Multi-Skill_. "We can use derivatives of our abilities, such as magnetism, or items to compensate for any flaws, such as my coins, or silicon cards in that other person's case."

"Magicians can learn and use anything with enough time and effort, barring a few exceptions. We aren't as limited, so in terms of versatility, we can outdo most Espers. In addition, the number of Espers is limited, and people have to undergo changes in their brains, while normal people can be taught magic with time under a _Sorcerer_."

"If that's the case, why do magicians stay in the shadows?" Mikoto asked.

"Because our world is one of darkness," Lessar said, briefly pausing as the waiter delivered the cakes. Once he left, she took a bite and swallowed before continuing. "To walk the path of a magician is to walk alongside death."

"What do you mean 'alongside death'?"

"You didn't realize it when we first met, because I felt it wouldn't help, but those higher-ups that were planning on nuking your home were killed by decapitation, using magic. It was really graphic, with blood lining the walls and everything."

Mikoto shivered at the thought. Lessar, on the other hand, was munching down one of the cakes. How could she eat while discussing such things?

"Just now, you were wondering how I could eat after bringing up the topic, right?" Lessar asked. "That's what I mean by walking alongside death. Those in our world are used to it. There are some things that will disturb even a hardened magician, but as far as decapitation goes, it wasn't the worst I've seen.

"Our world is one where we will do whatever it takes to accomplish a goal. We all have our own sets of morals and limits, but in the face of accomplishing a goal, you should expect for a magician to do whatever it takes. Sacrificing a city of tens of thousands, calling down an Archangel, or even destroying the world, if it will accomplish our goal, _so be it_."

"How can magicians do such a thing?" Mikoto commented blankly, before realizing the implications. "Not that you're bad or anything!"

Lessar shrugged her shoulders while chewing. "Its fine, to be honest, I've done things you're better off not knowing. The point is that magicians _aren't_ normal. We defy nature, or even God, if it will accomplish a goal. Magicians have a goal or a purpose that they want to achieve, one that couldn't be done through normal methods. Like flying, for instance—"

"Magicians can fly!" Mikoto interrupted. She heard of a few Espers who could accomplish it, but the numbers were few and far. "Under your own power?"

"Like I said, not as limited as Espers. Mankind has dreamed of flying since they first saw birds doing it. It was one of the oldest dreams of man; therefore it was one of the first things magicians sought to accomplish and did so. The only problem was that since the number of spells to fly increased, so did the number of ways to make them fall to earth. The very concept of the counter spell can equal 'death by falling' before you hit the ground, with the world then enforcing it to make it happen.

"In general, Christian spells for flying are the easiest to counter, being so widespread and all, that for every spell to accomplish flight, they have two to counter it." Lessar picked up a cup of tea and drank it before continuing. "But back on topic now. Let's say that, more than anything in the world, you want to fly under your own power. That is impossible normally, but a magician would engrave that goal on their souls within a name, Latin for most western magicians, and use magic to accomplish it."

"Like our nicknames as Level 5's?"

"Sort of, but you guys can go without your nicknames and still be who you are. A magician's _Sorcery Name_ is engraved upon their souls, and can't be cast aside so easily. It's a name we wear across countless battlefields, for a purpose that's—sometimes literally—worth Hell. A magician who loses their purpose falls, and if they can't find a new purpose or get back up, they become little more than masses of power."

"So," Mikoto closed her eyes in thought, "everything that they hope, dream, and are, is within that name?"

"Now you're getting it. I have rules when fighting magicians, and one of them relates to the announcement of the name. But to all magicians in general, when someone announces their Sorcery Name, they are willing to use everything in their power, lives included, to utterly destroy you. Before that name, nothing else matters. Not friends, not families, not civilians, not organizations, not even God, will take precedence before that name."

Mikoto heart skipped a beat. Even compared to the darkness of Academy City, their world was completely dark. This was the world that Kamijou had been fighting in? How had he survived up until now?

Lessar was nearly finished with her second slice of cake, when she overheard a nearby table conversing about the 'recent reappearance of the Gods on the islands'. It bought up a question she wanted to ask Mikoto, but she would save it for later, after ordering another slice of cake and answering Mikoto's next few questions.

"I've heard a little about the war between our sides, but I don't know the real details about it. Can you tell me more?" Mikoto asked.

"Well, it was building up and was going to happen—one way or another. But it didn't get really bad until the Imagine Breaker started working with Neccessarius. The Roman Catholic Church, or RCC, used numerous triumph cards against Neccessarius and Academy City, only for them to be destroyed by his right hand. They lost more and more power, despite having over two billion followers, and grew more desperate. There are rumors that the dark side of the RCC had launched two direct attacks against Academy City and planned more, with the intent of killing him."

Mikoto recalled when Kamijou had been so injured, yet determined to fight against an enemy he refused to allow her to help with, and it made her heart sink. He had an organization, with power that was the equivalent to over two billion people coming to kill him, yet he never once asked for help from her, even though she was one of the strongest Espers in Academy City.

"Because of his and Neccessarius' position during the conflict, he was known as the representative of the Science Side. The person who pulled the trigger to the war by coaxing Russia into attacking was Fiamma of the Right, a man with a right hand that could do nearly anything. He aimed for the position of one superior to God and attained it briefly, even summoning down an Archangel. He was the representative of the Magic Side, unofficially anyway, since a great deal of magicians wanted him dead. He disappeared after clashing with the Imagine Breaker, everyone assumed he died."

"So, because of that, the Science Side was seen as the winners?"

"Yes," Lessar agreed. "And that boy became the enemy of just about everyone on the Magic Side who fought in the war. When they thought he was dead, they cursed him and praised him at the same time, for facing against an enemy with such power and stopping the Archangel, which was on a rampage. But now that the information that he's alive has leaked, well…I'm guessing the number of attempts on his life will increase."

_GREMLIN_, Mikoto thought. Considering his participation in the war, from the perspective of someone like Lessar, he was the enemy to defeat. Lessar noted the look on Mikoto's face and figured she knew something, but put it in the back of her mind.

"That's partially why I want him to serve the UK now. If he was under the protection of the Knights, the Royal Family, and Neccessarius, there wouldn't be a force left that could touch him. In theory anyway."

"He's not the type to be helped," Mikoto sighed. "He's the type to help instead. His doctor has to be overworked."

Lessar nodded, staring at the newly arrived cake. "To be honest, I fought alongside him in the war. I like him a lot." Mikoto's bangs gave off a spark of electricity at that. "Since he's been around, it's like our dark world has been growing brighter, just a little by little."

The members of Neccessarius would agree with her on that. It used to be an organization where to gain one ally would mean losing another. But since he arrived, they only grew in power while weakening the RCC's, minimizing the conflict overall.

All of his allies seem to deny the simpler solution to kill the enemy, which in turn moves them to join those who they once fought. It was more difficult, but yielded a greater result. He had the potential to be the Messiah of their side, if he ever broke away from Aleister's grasp.

The Kamijou faction, with him at the head, could bring peace.

"Alone he's a small light of hope, one that various forces keep trying to extinguish. They may, or rather will, succeed someday. After all, he only has his right hand. But if there's a large group beside him, that bright light will become a glorious blaze that can rival the flames of Múspell. I would like to see the world that emerges from it, with the UK at the lead of course."

"You might be right about that Muspelheim thing, but you're wrong on one matter."

"Oh," Lessar blinked curiously. "And what would that be?"

"They won't succeed in killing him," Mikoto magnetically lifted the silverware on the tables around them, unintentionally, with her determination. "Because, I'll there!"

"Oh my," Lessar smirked, licking her lips. "It looks like I'm not the only one interested in him for more than his right hand. But cool it on the floating, or you're gonna get my new favorite cake place shut down."

"Hm?" Mikoto only then noticed that she was making the café seem like it was the site of a ghost haunting, freaking people out, and lowered the floating silverware. From that day on, the café would be known as 'the place where utensils float'. Business increased soon after because of the word of mouth, and a franchise was born.

"Alright, we have time for one more question," Lessar told her, after finishing her cake. "But first I have one for you. I'm figured that attack was meant for him, and since that flat-chested girl, Birdway, was there, he's probably got a faction after him with some influence and power. You probably don't know too much, being new to this and all, but can you at least tell me their name?"

Mikoto answered honestly, returning the favor that Lessar had done for her questions. "GREMLIN. That's what I've been told."

"I see," Lessar said, with her eyes deep in thought. "Given who won the war, that name is fitting. Alright, ask the last question for the day."

Mikoto thought about her last question, but she already knew what she wanted to ask. It was lurking deep in her heart, and she was afraid, but she asked anyway. "Why did that idiot go to the front of the war anyway?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Lessar sighed. "For the same reason he jumped into the sea, despite the _manos_. For the sake of that girl who was next to him."

Neither of them talked after that. They stayed silent, only breaking it once in the taxi, to tell the driver to take them back to the hotel.

###

A magician observed the cab passing under the twilight sky, which was getting ready to welcome the night. These two, who interfered in the attempt on Kamijou's life, were placed on the top of the list to be subdued at all cost. The magician took pity on the younger girls, and the unfortunate driver, but showed no hesitation when she cast the spell to summon the Kapua.

She hoped that they wouldn't force her to reveal her Sorcery Name. If she didn't have to, their deaths would be clean. Otherwise, even their bones would be melted away.

The taxi driver kept his eyes on the road, never breaking his concentration from it. Despite the awkwardness of having two teenage girls, nearly his own daughter's age, being in a silent daze of sorrow, he did what he was paid to do and kept focused on the road. Even when they were passing a rocky beach, and the setting sun was looming over the horizon like a picture painted by heaven, he kept his eyes forward. He was a professional of many years after all; he'd seen a lot of things.

But let's face it, if a ten-foot giant made of seashells appeared in front of you, you'd blink twice in confusion too. The giant raised its large arms and smashed down on the hood of the car in motion, launching it into a forward flip. The shattered windshield flew inwards with force, cutting him severely, and the sudden motion forced his head into the steering wheel, despite wearing his seat belt.

He was out cold when Lessar, suffering from numerous small cuts and scrapes, pulled him out of his seat by force and leapt out of the broken taxi mid-flip with Mikoto, who was bleeding from a deep gash on her head. The magician moved them away from the burning vehicle before it exploded.

"Another attack?" Mikoto asked, wiping the blood from her right eye. Lessar had pulled some concoction out of her backpack and rubbed it over the gash on Mikoto's head, closing it with a sizzling sound.

"Looks that way," Lessar responded, while looking over the unconscious driver. "Judging from the twenty or so Ka-poe-kino-pupu, we were the targets this time. This civilian driver was an unfortunate collateral casualty. His vehicle was his source of income, so that's his way of living gone, and his brain is probably starting to swell from the impact; he'll die soon if he doesn't get medical attention."

Mikoto looked at the poor driver. He had nothing to do with this and was about to die for just doing his job. Was the world of magicians really this dark? "Can you do anything for him?"

"I need some time, and I can probably slow down or stop the swelling. If you've got the Dawn-colored Sunlight's contact information in your cell phone, they can probably reach here in time to save his life."

"Ah," Mikoto closed her eyes and faced the _Pupu_ Kapua, numbering twenty and growing. "Then, I'll buy you some time and smoke the bastard out…"

Sparks flew from her bangs and she charged towards the shell army.

###

The ringing of a cell phone interrupted Birdway, who was in the middle of a gaming session while waiting for Index to finish a small fortune worth of snacks before continuing their debriefing. Mark Space answered the phone with haste.

"Mark Space," he said into the phone.

"The guardian for the Lolita," Lessar said in an unsurprised tone. "I'm the magician who helped earlier."

"I'm assuming you have a reason for contacting us," he skipped straight to the point.

"All business, huh?" Lessar responded. "To the point, the girl accompanying the Imagine Breaker and I are under attack by GREMLIN, and there was a civilian injured. I can take the girl and run, but the civilian would die, and I doubt that boy who's on your side would like that. Healing him completely is out of my hands, but if you can send some people out here to treat him, I'm willing to make you a deal."

"Let's hear it," he told her in a business tone. "What sort of deal would you offer us, for the sake of that unrelated person?"

"Save him, and replace his damaged car. In exchange, I'll turn over the magician from GREMLIN _alive_ after we restrain her."

"One moment please," he covered the microphone of the cell phone and leaned over to whisper in Birdway's ear. She nodded in agreement. "Understood, we'll send a squad to you location, and I will personally accompany them."

"Wonderful," Lessar snickered. "I guess you guys aren't so bad after all. It's a shame that all of those resources and power aren't being used to benefit the UK."

###

The army of shell golems fell quickly to the enraged Level 5. Once the last had fallen, the magician controlling them had made their appearance. Wearing a red, sleeveless gown, and crown of flowers similar to one of Mikoto's friends, the young woman of roughly nineteen stepped over the burned shells and introduced herself.

"So, a magician is siding with one of the other monsters of science," she said looking at the ritual Lessar was performing on the driver. "I pity having to kill such young girls, and one who is unrelated to either side."

"You," Mikoto spoke softly, "have a lot of nerve attacking us like this. Who do you think you are?"

"A _Descendant_," she told her. Lessar looked nervous upon hearing the statement. "My name, the name of the one who will lay you to rest, is Pel."

_Not good_, Lessar thought. _Pel is probably short for Pele from the mythology. This is one opponent she can't face. Is this what that conversation about the gods returning was about?_

The battle between the Level 5 and the goddess incarnate was about to begin…

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

* Steel Gloves: Carried by the members of New Light, they can grab things like fire or cement dust, or in Lessar's Custom case, a freaking plane in mid-flight. Her manipulating the water with it is just taking it to the logical conclusion without overpowering her.

* Magicians: As Birdway, Stiyl, and other magicians have stated, as a whole, magicians are in it for their own reasons, and they do bad things to accomplish goals, morality and ethics be damned if they get in the way. They aren't heroes or villains, no matter what good or bad, heroic or disgraceful thing they do, it's all done selfishly. To quote Archer from Fate Stay Night: "You can wipe away disgrace with results."

Let's be frank, when Kanzaki and Stiyl first spied Index with Touma, they stated it would be okay for people to disappear, and Stiyl tried to cook Kamijou alive, not knowing of his right hand. Kanzaki didn't kill him because crippling him was more efficient for keeping Index in one place. Stiyl made it clear what kind of place Neccessarius used to be before Kamijou got involved.

Morals are rare and few. Pitying someone for getting caught up in it wasn't the same as not killing them. I'm going soft right now, because I feel that throwing Mikoto into a pitch black world of death in the first three chapters would only end up breaking her mind and spirit, and no reader wants that suddenly dropped on them.

But the death toll will probably skyrocket, considering how magicians like GREMLIN are. Just giving you fair warning.

*Ka-poe-kino-pupu : The _People Who Had Shell Bodies._

_*Descendant: I'm throwing in my own elements now. A Descendant is one who has inherited a High Spirit or god's power through legacy. I'd say demigods, but considering the blood line has been thinned so much, the chances of them manifesting abilities or traits is next to none, completely skipping generations. Think a Saint, but instead of having a body similar to the Son of God, they have received a very small fraction of power from a powerful ancestor._

_* Pele: Goddess of Wind, Lightning, Volcanoes, and Fire in Hawaiian religion. In other words, she Mikoto's rival for the story._

_* Norse Elements: I'm not an expert on Norse Mythology, but I do dabble in it because a lot of my writings center on it, like Arcane Advent, Valkyrie's Godchild, etc. In fact, one of the reasons I decided to involve Lessar was because of her ties as part of a group that uses Norse history, along with a previous connection to Mikoto._

_This will probably be the last release of September, but expect more in October. You can find updates on the main site: _.com/


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

In a bit of a surprise, a bolt of lightning was shot from the magician. It had a dark, reddish hue, as if laden with blood. It was a sharp contrast to Mikoto's light blue bolts. The bolt was directed towards Mikoto with lethal intentions, meant to kill her with a single hit.

Mikoto concentrated on the bolt and willed it to change direction, forcing it off course and into the ground. A fountain of loosened sand sprayed into the air. She held out her arm and returned the favor, firing a blue bolt of streaking lightning that would merely render her incapacitated. Pel waved her hand and the bolt was dissipated by a wave of hot air.

_Like I thought, her opponent is someone with command over lightning_, Lessar thought. _If it were a match between just lightning users, then she'd have a pretty good shot of winning. But if that girl has Pele's abilities, then she also commands the wind, fire, and volcanoes. All of those affect lightning_.

Mikoto kicked off the ground, charging the magician. She fired a stronger bolt from her bangs, one that wouldn't be easily brushed aside. Pel, fired another bolt as well, housing even more lethal intent.

The bolts clashed in midair, splitting into countless branches of lightning that dominated and destroyed the landscape. Spouts of flying sand and the dirt beneath littered the sky and rained down from above, yet the clashing lightning didn't break. They remained deadlocked.

Mikoto put more effort behind the bolt, maintaining it at level that wouldn't be fatal. Her blue lightning began tearing a trail through the red bolt and tracing it down to the magician. Pel had a brief look of shock—ironically— before the bolt hit her, dropping her to the ground.

"Well, that was anti-climatic," Mikoto sighed, turning toward Lessar to check on her and the driver.

"Don't think it's over yet!" Lessar tried to tell her, as a red bolt struck Mikoto in the back of the head, knocking her forward. She turned to see the magician, now standing and wiping the sand off her clothes.

"It would seem that unlike me, you're completely immune to your abilities." Pel estimated. She was right of course, as the highest class of Electro-master, she completely immune to electricity. "I only have partial resistance."

"Are you sure you should be telling me your weakness?" Mikoto asked, raising her hand to her hair and running electricity through it. "So, all I've got to do is hit you with a big enough charge?"

Mikoto didn't hesitate in releasing a larger charge, sending it directly towards the magician. The magician merely closed her eyes and muttered something in a language that Mikoto didn't understand. The wind howled, as a dome of air redirected the bolt around her, forcing the lightning into the ground, turning the sand into fulgurites.

"Block this!" Mikoto roared, creating her vibrating iron sand whip-sword. The dome of air was torn apart by the construct, and Pel moved to avoid the sword, which chased her like a snake. It eventually coiled around her, with Mikoto ceasing the vibration and focusing on compressing it to a near solid state.

Pel muttered another phrase under her breath, and the air around her began shimmering and burning. The iron sand fell apart, as all traces of magnetism were ripped from the grains.

_I can't manipulate the iron sand around her_, Mikoto silently cursed. _Did she make it reach the Curie temperature?_

All things have a temperature at which they can be stripped from the effects of magnetism. Iron sand has a curie temperature of 585 Degrees Celsius, at which point it can no longer be magnetically charged. By creating a wall of heat around herself, Mikoto's control over the iron sand shattered near her.

Pel slammed her hands into the sand and commanded the winds to blow. The sand rose like a tidal wave and threatened to bury Mikoto alive. She pulled out a coin, using her signature _Railgun _to blast through the sand wave. Before she could take a deep breath, she noticed the sand beneath her was glowing red.

Mikoto couldn't react when a heavy metal object slammed into her and sent her across the beach, just as the ground ruptured, spilling out lava like a geyser. "Lessar's rules for fighting magicians #3: Expect more than what's shown," a voice told her. Mikoto looked to see Lessar, armed with various shells, rocks, and bottles of spices that must have been in her bag. "You okay?"

Mikoto rubbed her ribs where the Steel Glove had hit her. "Fine, just didn't expect an eruption to form under me. And then, if she can control the heat in the air, she can stop my iron sand."

"She can manipulate the heat directly around her, but she can't extend it further than a few feet. Otherwise, she would have simply ended the battle by incinerating you." Lessar explained with a calm face. "Lessar's rules for fighting magicians #2: Observe, Analyze, and Counter. Observe the technique, draw an analysis, and counter the technique, before the opponent does the same."

Lessar jumped into the air as lava erupted from under her. Pel controlled the wind and drove it with force towards Lessar, whose fingertips were glowing with a bluish hue, as she wrote a rune script that read: "_Njord, offer this devout sailor your protection and calm the winds that blow over your shore._"

Scattering the seashells into the air, they rang and the wind died down to the surprise of Pel. She quickly regained her senses and sought to protect herself. Since she couldn't use the wind, she summoned the power of volcanoes instead. Lava erupted and poured around her.

Lessar, however, scattered the container of herbs into the air and chanted, "_Exorcism. Fire of the right and wind of the front, mix the colors of your directions with the wind. The wind of the front right which also indicates the active becomes that which indicates attack and change!_"

The container exploded in a flash of green light, blinding Pel and distorting the heat surrounding her with a gale. The lava cooled into stone and Lessar put her entire weight into a kick that found itself at Pel's center of gravity. The magician buckled, but leapt back to avoid another strike. Lessar leapt back to Mikoto's side.

"Was that really lava?" Mikoto asked.

"No," Lessar told Mikoto, "it has the 'destructive properties of lava', but it's not like a true lava flow. The temperature is too low, there are no poisonous gases, and it became solid too easily when my spell hit it. She can generate lava, but she has to strip it of most of its properties since she wouldn't be able to survive being so close to it with a human body. She may be a Descendant, but she's still human."

_Plus she can only control her abilities one at a time_, Lessar concluded. The enemy had indeed inherited the abilities of her ancestor, but not the control to use them all at once. The power she could put behind them was limited as well.

With her abilities analyzed and the battle falling out of her favor, Pel called forth the power of volcanoes once again. Lava geysers began forming all around them, flowing towards Lessar, who took off running along the edge of the water with the Steel Glove, scooping it up as she moved. With a shove, she directed a water spout towards the mouth of a lava vent.

When the water met the flow of lava, an explosive release of energy sent Pel flying backwards and broke her control, stopping the flow of lava completely. She could block the heat of the explosion, but not the force. Lessar began the next spell to finish things up.

"_Exorcism. Wind of the front swallows the earth of the left and indicates the defense of the land and offense of the wind!_"

Wind and sand became one, forming a twister that bombarded Pel, who was lying on the ground, in layers of thick sand, imprisoning her. She couldn't manipulate the wind with another element mixed in so thoroughly, so she couldn't stop the twister. Lessar signaled Mikoto, who released a large scale electrical attack at the spiraling mass. The twister became a fulgurites prison, with the coating on Pel hardened into a solid cocoon for her body.

"Is she…" Mikoto struggled to ask if the magician was dead.

Lessar sighed. "It'd be simpler, that's for sure. Considering she has a natural resistance to heat and electricity, your last attack didn't probably even faze her that much. However, that thick layer of hardened sand is too hard for her to break out of, and the sand under her was heated as well, so she can't simply dig her way out. There's enough air to allow her to breathe for the next few minutes, by then the Dawn-Colored Sunlight will have arrived."

"So, it's over?"

"No," Lessar twirled her Steel Glove around, "Lessar's rules for fighting magicians #1: As long as a magician is conscious, they're a threat. It's just that once the others arrive, she won't be our problem."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

A twelve-man group of magicians from the Dawn-Colored Sunlight arrived only two minutes after the battle ended. A few of them carried strange weapons and what Lessar assumed to be spiritual items to restrain her, similar to Dromi. Mark Space was accompanying them personally, as he stated he would.

Two of the magicians broke off to take a look at the cab-driver, who still needed help despite Lessar's attempts at healing him. They carried various spiritual items related not only to Christianity, but Buddhism as well. He would be back on his feet, in no time.

Lessar went over to Mark Space and began giving him information that she retrieved over the course of the battle, such as Pel's status as a Descendant. Mikoto sat on the beach, with a bit of blackened iron sand in her palm, looking towards the fulgurites prison that stood up as if it were a tower. She had a lot on her mind.

She had seen several different abilities in Academy City. It was the home of all the Esper in the world after all—as far as she knew. She'd even fought against someone wielding the all but impossible Multi-skill. But this was the first time she'd been rendered so helpless while possessing her powers.

The creatures from earlier was nothing compared to that magician. She commanded lighting, heat, wind, and volcanoes. She managed to strip Mikoto's magnetism from the iron sand with ease, and countered her lightning. Even if she didn't strike her directly, she normally held back to avoid melting living things from the excess heat. But even that wouldn't have helped.

If Mikoto had been fighting alone, this battle would have ended in her death easily. But that wasn't the scary part. Not by a long shot. She expected to meet enemies that she couldn't simply defeat without massive effort the moment she got on the plane.

The scary part was that neither Lessar, nor the other magician, used their Sorcery Names. That meant that—while both had put forth some effort, in a dazzling display—they hadn't gone even remotely close to going all out. Somehow, she didn't believe that either one was putting in more effort than it took to get the job done.

On the other hand, Mikoto had to push herself while remaining within the limits set by her own set of morals. For the first time she realized that her limits would be a bigger burden than ever before. Would she be able to keep going as she has been, or would she have to become more aggressive and discard her self-imposed limitations that made her who she was?

A sudden explosion of crimson ruptured the fulgurites tower. Countless shards rained over the beach and found themselves in the bodies of the unfortunate members of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight that were too close. Inside the cloud of smoke that blinded them, Mikoto heard the sound of Mark Space grunting, the sound steel clashing with lightning, the moaning of the fallen, and one last explosion from next to her.

When the wind blew and visibility was restored, Mikoto found Lessar covered in sand—from what Mikoto assumed was the giant smoking craters beside them both—and in a guard position in front of her. Mark Space was uninjured, although his clothing was blackened. The area where the magician and Descendant Pel was imprisoned now had a ten-foot deep crater. She was gone.

"You let her escape," Lessar pointed out to Mark Space, who gave her a quick glance and then turned to his injured men. "Just great."

###

The sound of running water from the shower echoed around the room, which was filled with the scent and heat of the steam. They were of little concern to Mikoto, who was lying face down on the bed closest to the bathroom. Minutes passed until the sound of water beating against Lessar's body stopped with the squeaking of the valves. She stepped out with a smile on her face, the towel around her neck and covering her chest.

"Man, that was a great shower~" she said to Mikoto with glee, "this suite is much better than mine. And you're sharing it with the Index Librorum and Imagine Breaker?"

"Yeah," Mikoto replied, not really paying attention. _I have to think of a way to fight more efficiently against someone like her. Maybe turning oxygen into ozone through— _

"So, which one of you does he sleep with, you or the nun?" Lessar asked, interrupting her thought process. "I think he has a thing for those types. I wonder if I should buy that erotic sacred nun costume I saw online. What do you think?"

"Yeah, sure," Mikoto answered, still not paying attention. _Since she got away, she'll definitely come after us again. What do I do if—"_WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" she blurted out as the mattress creaked and bounced from the sudden excess weight.

Lessar had jumped on top of her and was straddled on her back—the towel that was around her neck floating in the air towards the floor. Before Mikoto could shock her like she would Kuroko, Lessar lifted the Railgun's shirt and gently ran her finger along Mikoto's spine, sending pleasure arching across her nerves like electricity. Mikoto uncharacteristically let out a moan of uninhibited pleasure before covering her mouth, her face turning red. Lessar smiled and leaned closer, gently whispering in her ear.

"You're feeling down because of everything that happened, because you faced off against a magician for the first time head to head, and because she escaped after all your hard work —" she shifted her hips lower and laid her chest on Mikoto's back "—and will eventually come back to attack us, but that happens in our line of work. Instead of worrying about what's done, you should focus on your other objective of getting together with the Imagine Breaker."

"G…get off…of me," she struggled to say. _Crap, that felt way different from when Kuroko does something perverted. This is more elegant; more refined and felt wonderf—I mean wrong! It felt wrong!_

"Let my magic fingers help you relax, while you and I go over strategies to win his heart. Lancis, Floris, and Bayloupe have all complimented me on my technique."

###

In Academy City, Kuroko was in her and Mikoto's dorm room with several bottles of Gekota-ade, a sports drink that was recently marketed, and various pouches of powdered aphrodisiacs. She emptied a pouch into her cupped hand and then teleported it into a bottle without opening it. When she was about to do the next one, it felt like a lightning bolt passed through her head.

"Onee-sama's innocence is in danger!" she screamed.

###

Index walked into the room with a roll in her mouth, only to find Mikoto spaced out on the bed—oddly relaxed and staring at the ceiling with a droopy, flushed face—and Lessar, who apparently decided to stay in their room for tonight, already in her night gown and unbraiding her hair for the night in the mirror. She seemed satisfied with herself and was humming a tune.

"Has either of you seen Touma?"

"Mmm…gaph…" Mikoto mumbled incoherently.

"No—not since earlier," Lessar answered.

###

_It's all my fault_, Kamijou cursed himself mentally. He was on the rooftop of the hotel, standing a few feet away from the edge and looking out to the sea below.

_Mikoto and Lessar could have been killed because of me_, he thought. _I knew the risks of them coming along with me and I didn't stop them. Index was almost killed because of me. She was used to bait me. I caused the war between the Science Side and Magic Side. The countless deaths the occurred were my fault._

_But I can make it right_, the voice that represented Kamijou's guilt comforted him, as he took a step closer to the edge. Only three steps left. _If I caused all of it, then my death will make things right_. His body shook in resistance, trying to force him to stop moving any further.

_Don't resist it_. He swallowed. _They'll all be safe if I take a few more steps. My right hand causes only tragedy. It'll be better for everyone._ Two steps left.

_Stop_, a second voice appeared in the back of his head. He stopped mid-step.

_Keep going_, the first voice said. _This is the only way. My death will end everything. GREMLIN will have no reason to keep committing their actions, and the Magic Side and Science Side will cease their fighting. Balance will be restored._ One step left.

_Are you such a coward that you'd run away and die? Do you think you can solve all the problems in the world with your death? Is your ego so great that you think the world revolves around you? If so, how are any different than Fiamma?_

_Peace will come with my death. The world I once saved can only stay saved if I free it from my influence, and—_

_You didn't save the world for the world's sake, you did it for Index! Didn't you leave Academy City in order to deal with GREMLIN for yourself? Is your resolve that weak? Are you just going to give in? That peace is not real. That voice is an illusion that's driving you to give up, so you'll—No, I'll— _

"—Shatter that Illusion!" Kamijou yelled into the night air, the cold spreading over his body. He didn't hold back, lifting his right hand, he clenched his fist and drove it into his head. The sound of shattering glass overtook the cold voices of guilt and silenced them once and for all.

"And you were so close to finding peace, monster of science," a soft voice came from behind him. He turned to find a beautiful woman with a cold, comforting presence. He steeled himself, refusing the cold comfort with burning conviction. "A normal person would have jumped minutes ago."

"You," he clenched his right fist, "those voices came from you, didn't they? You're from GREMLIN, aren't you? How did you sneak past everyone else?"

A soft smile appeared on her face. "Like my sister, Pel, I am also descended from a goddess—Poli'ahu. I possess command of ice, cold, and snow, along with more _passive_ traits, such as entering territories and whispering in the ears of others, unnoticed and subtle, like snow."

"You tried to convince me to kill myself," he spoke with heat in his voice. _I almost went through with it too. She was so convincing it—I honestly believed all those things were my fault._

"My sweet monster," she spoke softly, if she was a mother speaking to a child, "all I did was brought those thoughts that were already there to the surface. The war was fought because of your actions, your friends and countless other people were drawn in. The rioters in Avignon, the people around the world who fell under the power of Divine Punishment, the destruction of the land for the sake of altering the ley lines, and all those who couldn't be saved in the countless smaller battles fought by nameless soldiers. All because of your right hand which can't be separated from you short of death.

"You can't lie to yourself. It's all your fault. The longer you struggle, the more people you hurt, and the harder it will be for you to find peace. If the core of all the problems is destroyed, all those problems will correct themselves. You truly believe that."

"That doesn't give you the right to try to kill me." _Even now her words are drawing me in, like I'm hearing myself, my mother, and my friends speaking at the same time, blaming me._ _She could have an ability similar to empathy. I've heard of an Esper that could align the distance to someone's heart—to take on the feelings that they had for someone else. _

"Monster and champion of the Science Side, it is time to rest. I, Poli, shall lay you to sleep. Permanently. "

Before Kamijou could raise his fist, or Poli could cast a spell, a large bird descended from the sky and landed between them. It was a magnificent pure white owl, with a small an Anglican Cross dangling from a small silver chain on its neck. Standing between the two, it served as a barrier to avoid conflict.

"I'm afraid that I'll have to insist that you are wrong," a passive voice emerged from behind Poli. "It is wrong to just run away from life, to seek death in order to escape it. Peace is not found that way, only despair for yourself and those you left behind. Humans by nature hold dark thoughts and feelings of self-pity and guilt. These thoughts gather and stir in our hearts—darkening them and driving our souls down a dark path—by there lies light and hope nevertheless, awaiting for us to reach for it and embrace it."

Stepping from the stairwell entrance, a beautiful woman with short blonde hair, magnificent blue eyes, dressed an English Anglican Church nun's robe and bearing an Anglican Cross around her neck. "Mister Kamijou would never seek death, not for himself or for others. Your words are influencing his free will, so I must ask you to stop leading him astray."

Kamijou couldn't believe his eyes. "Orsola….Aquinas?"

She gave him a comforting look that said, "It's alright now."

"I convinced him to come up here in order to not involve anyone other than the Imagine Breaker," Poli told Orsola, as she sent a wave of cold air that rustled her short hair. "I do not want more casualties than necessary. Leave now."

"Even if I cannot defeat you, I have already informed Miss Birdway of your presence and she will be arriving in mere moments. Please depart from here. If a battle takes place now, many lives will be lost over a pointless struggle."

Poli could not sense any malice in her words. They were pure and honest words from someone who hated conflict and wanted to prevent it, even if it would mean allowing an enemy to escape. She was offering her a peaceful way out of what would turn into a bloody battle. Wordlessly, Poli's body turned pure white, forming a perfect replica in snow that dissipated and scattered. Kamijou's clenched fist loosened, as Orsola approached him.

"Was it alright to let her leave like that?" Kamijou asked her.

"That was not her real body," Orsola commented as she stopped in front of him. "As for you, Mister Kamijou. You do not have to take the burden of everything onto yourself. Nor do you have to suffer alone. If you feel the need to talk to someone about it, my ears will always be there to listen to you."

Orsola had such a pleasant aura around her that made him want to tell her all the things he kept buried inside. "Thanks, but why are you here?" Kamijou asked her. "You have zero battle ability, right?"

"Sherry taught me a little about how to use golems in our free time—she mentioned something about in case someone tried to take advantage of my innocence—and I learned how to do Spell Intercept as well," she told him as she patted him down, looking for any injuries she thought he might have sustained. "I still can't keep up with high speed battles, but I can help support you.

"As for why I am here," she smiled at him as she finished inspecting him, "there was no one left to help. Mister Magnus had a temporary moment of aggression and had to be placed in a calm environment to settle down."

What she meant was that he got free, busted out Innocentius, and had to be restrained after taking down the rest of the warring factions. All while Laura was laughing. At least until he went after her.

Teenagers and their tantrums.

The owl spread its wings and took flight. It circled around the rooftop—probably looking for any remaining trace of Poli—and then above the pair, until it felt comfortable enough to land on Orsola's right shoulder. It tilted its head curiously at Kamijou Touma.

"This is Sebastian," Orsola told Kamijou, who slowly extended his right hand to pet Sebastian. The owl took off from her shoulder and fluttered over his head, pecking at him. "Oh my, I should have mentioned this, but Sebastian is a sentient golem. So if you touch him with your right hand—"

"I GOT IT, I GOT IT! I'M SORRY FOR NEARLY ERASING YOU! PLEASE STOP ATTACKING ME!" Kamijou pleaded with the owl. It let out a satisfied hoot and fluttered back onto Orsola's shoulder as her phone rang.

She answered it and, after a brief conversation, hung up politely. "Well then, shall we return below? Miss Birdway has called for a meeting between all of us.

###

In a conference room of the hotel, Birdway, Kamijou Touma, Orsola Aquinas, Misaka Mikoto, Mark Space, Lessar, and Index were all sitting around a large round table. There was a heavy atmosphere surrounding them all—with exception of Orsola, who was petting Sebastian. Birdway's interlocked fingers covered her mouth from sight, as she began the meeting.

"Three times today," she muttered. "Three times today, we have been attacked by GREMLIN."

"There was another attack?" Lessar, Index, and Mikoto asked at the same time.

"Yes," Orsola spoke gently, "an agent of GREMLIN—her name was Miss Poli, I believe—she had a golem-like creature infiltrate the hotel and tried to harm Mister Kamijou." Orsola didn't mention _how_ she tried to kill him, or the dark thoughts he had buried within. He silently thanked her and picked up the conversation, informing them of her abilities and physical features.

"Two Descendants, from goddesses that opposed each other, are siblings?" Lessar leaned back in her chair and sighed. "And they're both part of GREMLIN?"

"The longer we wait, the more difficult things will be," Mark Space chimed in, "so tomorrow, we will investigate three bases that we believe to belong to GREMLIN. We've confirmed that they have traces of the magical energy used to create the _manos_ and _pupus_ used earlier today.

"We will be splitting into teams: Imagine Breaker, Miss Aquinas, and the Index Librorum will move to the base in the north, as we'll need their abilities and knowledge. Miss Misaka and Miss Lessar, I know that both of you have no obligation to help, so I will not force you to assist. However, we've detected electrical _and_ magical signals from a location near an Academy City branch, and we need someone of Miss Misaka's skill set and a capable magician to investigate. After the war, moving a group of only magicians so close to that location…"

"It'd look like an attack," Misaka guessed. _Isn't that #10142's facility?_ _It's in the same direction she pointed to._

"Yep," Birdway answered. "Aleister and I aren't on the best of terms, but I doubt he'd be allied with GREMLIN, so we can assume they are planning something with that facility. Mark will be accompanying me while we crush the largest base in the south with the rest of the magicians, barring a few that will be accompanying the Imagine Breaker. We'll also serve as a distraction so all of you can sneak in."

"If they're still there," Lessar pointed out. "You don't camp out next to an enemy location unless you plan to attack it. There's a good chance that by the time we reach there tomorrow, it'll be too late."

Mikoto digested the information. She wanted to go with Kamijou, but if the facility was attacked, her sister would be caught up in it. The Sisters had military training and could defend themselves easily, but against magicians that may not be enough. Looking out for them was her responsibility.

"I can't speak for her—" Mikoto pointed to Lessar, "—but I'll go for my own reasons."

"How cold," Lessar muttered before clearing her throat and addressing Mark Space, "I'm not really interested in the Science Side, but I'm already involved. I'll go with her."

The rest of the night was spent outlining the mission the next day. Come morning, they would depart for a new battlefield.

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

Yeah, that scene in the bedroom—let me say that it didn't go all the way, before anyone accuses me of writing smut or defiling Mikoto. I'll admit I don't know what compelled me to put that in. I mean, I just planned to have Lessar cheer her up like a big sister figure and then Kuroko came to mind, and next thing I know…

Sorry for the mood whiplash as well, I wanted to make it clear Touma did have some guilt about the state of the world and everyone getting hurt—he's the messiah archetype after all— Poli just bought it all out and magnified the feelings of guilt, with her own grievances applied to what she was led to believe he was responsible for, to suicidal levels that were overwriting common sense and self-preservation. I got the idea after reading _Ghost Story_ from the _Dresden Files_. As Lessar stated before, the war was going to happen eventually, so he's not really to blame.

Poli'ahu is the snow goddess opposite of Pele and controls snow, cold, and ice. Her name means "cloaked bosom" or "temple bosom". In contrast to Pele, she's calm, cool, and maternal—okay not sure about that last one, but at least in my fan fiction she is. She and Pele were rivals, not siblings, but let's say that their bloodlines crossed when one of their descendants fell in love with the rival goddess and be done with it.

Yes, Orsola is representing Neccessarius. No, you didn't see it coming. Yes, Sebastian looks a lot like Hedwig. No, he won't be delivering letters. I bet a picture of her with Sebastian on her shoulder would rock. Maybe I should contact an artist…

From next chapter on is when things start getting serious. No more saving and sparing the innocent and extras.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter Five:

Ruins.

The only way to describe what remained of the Academy City facility was ruins. The building was in shambles, crumbling to pieces and barely qualifying to be called a building anymore, large chunks of the steel walls were gouged out and torn aside. The bodies of countless guards, pieces of powered armors, and broken security droids lay skewed around like thrown away dolls that were torn to shreds by an angry dog. With the exception of the debris slowly falling and the hum of fluorescent lights, there was only silence, as Misaka Mikoto stood at the giant hole that was once a door, speechless at the scale of the destruction.

Lessar checked the bodies of the fallen, only to find no signs of life. They all had severe wounds, inflicted with traces of magic, underneath their top-of-the-line protective gear. The enemy had hit them hard and fast, using a method that undercut their defensive measures. As Lessar passed one guard who died with his eyes open, she gently ran her hand across them and closed them.

"This is horrible," Mikoto said, to no one in particular.

"This is a standard invasion tactic of certain cabals," Lessar commented. "You decimate the defenses using numbers, the element of surprise, and speed, capture the target, and disperse in multiple directions. They probably used golems rather than magicians, but if we move now, we can catch up to the ones controlling them while they're running."

Mikoto stood there motionless, without response. Her sister lived here. Even if she was killed, they had to find her body. Lessar grabbed her shoulder and tried to convince her, but a weak cry of help came from inside and Mikoto took off.

Navigating the maze of fallen equipment and debris, she searched for signs of life using her electro-perception, sensing the minuet electrical signals of a living body. Behind a fallen steel cabinet, the silhouette of a woman was faintly moving. Using magnetism, Mikoto pushed it aside and rushed over to the barely living woman.

She was dressed in a tattered and blood-stained lab coat, with the stains growing wider and wider from the seeping blood. Mikoto pulled off the backpack of supplies Mark Space gave her and lifted the dying woman's head with it. Her eyes were foggy, and her breathing labored, but she tried her best to speak.

"…Who's…there?" she asked weakly.

"My name is Misaka Mikoto," Mikoto replied, as Lessar moved in to see if she could help. "What happened here?"

"The Railgun…?"—she coughed up blood—"Eight's older sister?"

"Eight?"

"That's what we call serial number #10142…you have to help her. Those creatures, we suspected that they were after the Perpetual Energy core that we were developing here. It was only a prototype, but it still held limitless potential if used right. Eight was like a daughter to us all, so w-we had her take it and run after we realized we couldn't stop them."

"I'll go after her now!" Misaka yelled as tears fell down her eyes. "Just hold on for now. For her."

"Thank...yo...u…"she smiled weakly and single tear fell from her eye, before she passed on. Mikoto looked at Lessar, who shook her head. There was nothing she could do now.

All they could do was chase after the fleeing Sister.

###

#10142 stumbled on an overgrown root and fell to the ground. The sound of collapsing trees echoed across the jungle, as her pursuers chased her for the last few hours. They demolished her home and forced her to leave her family behind, only gaining a few precious minutes for a head start.

As a pair of stomping feet got closer, she hid as best she could behind one of the trees. The looming shadow of a _Pokaku_ Kapua—a ten foot, stone, humanoid golem—eclipsed the sunlight. She held her breath as it passed by, hoping that it would go away.

But that was hollow wish, as they somehow found her no matter where she went. It stopped mid-step and bought its massive arm around in an arc towards the tree. #10142 narrowly avoided being crushed.

She ran, the voices of the other Sisters in her head through the use of the network, attempting to guide her remotely through the use of satellite images of the area and identify the creatures that decimated the facility. Last Order, the administrator of the network, had streamlined the processing power to transmit them as effectively as she could.

As she ran, she recalled the last memories she had before the attack.

###

"Is it ready yet, Misaka asks while metaphorically trembling with excitement."

"Now, now," the female scientist said while patting her on the head. "The M.E.S.D.O may be finished but we still need a test run, Eight. Be a little more patient, it's not like someone else can take it. It was made for you and your sisters after all."

"Okay, Misaka says with a slightly disappointed tone."

"Hehe," the scientist laughs as she entered calculations into the computer. In the tank next to it was a sphere made of a pattern of numerous hexagons. "So, you met your big sister today?"

"Yes. Nee-san was making a move on 'that person', so Misaka interfered and confronted her, says Misaka with confidence. "

"Honestly, you girls are all love struck over that boy. Didn't you and #10032 get into a heated debate about it over the network? It dragged in so many of the Sisters, the administrator had to interfere and stop it."

"This Misaka gloated over the network to #10032 earlier today. Hehehe, Misaka laughs at having the upper hand."

"Eight, hon," an older man came through the door, "you be nice to your sisters. You're all one big family. Don't let a boy come between you."

The scientists and guards working in the facility were good people. They were all native to the island, and taken back when they were first ordered to take in the clone for readjustments. They were told to treat her no differently that they would a lab rat, but such cold actions were beyond them.

They welcomed her like a daughter.

Time passed, and #10142 became familiar with the island and the people, becoming a regular known as "Eight". And then WWIII occurred, and the facility was attacked many times by an unknown group of people using strange weapons, forcing them to relocate the facility near the jungle and arm themselves. #10142 took command of the weapons training, as all the Sisters had been given the experience for the Level 6 project. But things settled back down after the war ended.

Until the attack.

The alarms went off and the security measures befitting Academy City activated. None of them stopped the _Pokakus_ from invading. The guards armed themselves with weapons, powered armors, and security droids, heading out to the front, leaving #10142 to defend the Perpetual Energy core. One by one, her friends at the facility began to die. When the defensive line fell, the two scientists called for her.

"The ETA until they penetrate the final defenses is two minutes. The Misaka network is in communication with Academy City. Reinforcements were launched, but something shot them down and it will be a few hours before anyone else can arrive. Please run with the core, Misaka says in a panic."

"We won't make it," the older man told her as he shook his head. "They destroyed the vehicles with that last attack—if the two of us try to run, they'll catch up to us. Besides, the self-destruction mechanisms for the important equipment and data require both of our codes to be entered at the same time."

"T-Then Misaka will stay here and cover you both, Misaka says as she prepares for her final stand."

The woman shook her head and then handed her a pouch made of a super lightweight, but nearly indestructible material. "No Eight, your last order—No, your last request from us is to take the core and escape. With your training, you'll be the most likely to get away."

"B-But Misaka wants to stay with you, Misaka says as she begins to cry."

The woman hugged her tightly. "You're like a daughter to all of us, and no parent wants to see their child die in front of them. We finished the M.E.S.D.O and placed it inside the pouch—it has about a day's cool down time after each use, and has a few flaws, but it's functional—use it as a last resort. Now go."

The final alarms went off and the two forced her out the emergency exit.

They died shortly after ensuring that the data and equipment were unusable to the invaders.

###

_Ke-Keep running says Misaka as Misaka tries to think of what to do,_ the tiny administrator of the network ordered. The core couldn't be allowed to fall into the unknown enemies' hand, so running was the logical conclusion. The Sisters as a whole were thought to not have any emotions, so following the scientists' logical choice was to be expected and carried out without question.

But that wasn't true.

Though they were buried deep down, each of the Sisters were living, and slowly gaining the emotions that they were denied to develop at birth. Yet, the sorrow at the loss of her family, and the rage at their deaths drove her to release angry tears that fell down her face. Logic would not bring peace—nor would it bring back the lives lost at the facility.

Ignoring the cries from the administrator to keep running, she stopped and turned around. The army of Kapua that stood before her, the wall of destruction incarnate and countless reapers, the puppets that claimed those #10142 held dear, were the only ones she could unleash her new found rage.

_Don't stop, Misaka screams as—_ Last Order's command was cut off by the voices of the rest of the Sisters on the network screaming from the unfamiliar rage spreading throughout it. Misaka Worst was overtaken by it and destroyed the electrical equipment—and living room in general—in Yomikawa's home with a burst of purple electricity.

From her pouch, #10142 pulled out the black sphere made of countless hexagons and tossed in the air. She held a closed fist parallel to her face, discharging electrical streamers from it to the sphere. The gaps between the individual hexagons were illuminated blue, as it floated above her fist while being electrically charged.

Hidden within the countless roars, she muttered a command. "M.E.S.D.O. Activation: _Confirmed_. Pattern: _Alpha._ Charging: _C-Complete_. Network Calculation: _C-Comp-ple-ted_."

She launched it as if she was punching the orb forward. It left a blue trail in the air as it flew towards the army. Halfway across, the orb split apart, and the black hexagons moved into a dome formation, hovering in the air, with the Kapua centered as the targets. The latent electricity stored inside was released.

The sound of hundreds of thousands of bolts of lightning became a single roar of thunder that shook the entire island nation.

And the network connection with #10142 was severed.

###

The dome of lightning was like a giant bomb that set off every switch in Mikoto's body. She could detect the origin of the source in the distance—the location of #10142. She had to travel fast, in order to get to her. Lessar, who seemed to have understood at a glance, handed her an ugly stole and pulled out a second one. They were both covered in runes and had various bird feathers attached.

"These represent the feather cloaks used by Odin and Freya," Lessar lectured her. "The gods would literally change into birds, but these were made to be used in junction with my wind spells. Put it on, and you'll be carried by the wind like a feather."

Mikoto did as she was told. She had no time to waste, and as ridiculous as it sounded, she'd seen enough magic in the last day to believe anything. Lessar closed her eyes and summoned her magical energy before chanting, "Vindr, vér frétta þú bera Aser!" (Wind, we ask you to carry us!)

Mikoto looked at her in curiosity, as a light breeze began to blow. "It's Old Norse," Lessar told her. "I use modern sentence structure rather than traditional, but I just asked for the wind to carry us."

The light breeze became a fierce gale that lifted them off the ground, in the air it slowed down to a weak air current that constantly blew. As they were floating just over the treetops, Lessar was motioning the wind, keeping them airborne, with her fingers and her concentration.

"Can't we go any higher or faster?" Mikoto asked Lessar, her concern for her sister clouding her judgment.

"This spell wasn't designed for high altitude or speed—I'm not Floris you know—and your electrical field is interfering with the spell somehow. If Lancis were here, I'd risk it since she can sense danger, but if we fly higher and get attacked, we won't end up with just broken limbs."

Lessar noticed a shift in the atmosphere and swore, "Uskit'r!" The winds howled and became a storm that overtook Lessar and Mikoto. "This has to be Pel's work!" Lessar screamed over the wind. "We have to—"

Whatever she was about to say was cut off when a bolt of lightning struck them both from the sky. Mikoto was immune to the strike, but Lessar wasn't. She had a defensive charm in place, but she still lost consciousness, and with it went the spell she was using to stay airborne.

They fell from the sky like broken birds and split apart.

Mikoto really had to thank both Lessar and the devil's luck.

She had the fortune of landing at the base of a small waterfall, after plowing through several branches of trees, which should have probably killed her, if it weren't for the stole's defensive charms. It was torn to pieces now, and she sustained a few broken ribs judging from the pain. Blood was also seeping through her clothes, but at least Mikoto was still in one piece.

That luck ended when seven seashells fell from the sky and into the water. Shadows began growing around Mikoto. The ground shook and water splashed when seven giant _Pupua_ Kapua emerged, made of wet dirt, with a giant shell breastplate.

Mikoto let lightning fly and it penetrated the sandy creation…only for it to reform. It felt like the world was spinning, but she pulled out her coin dispenser, set on ending the battle quickly before she passed out.

She had to find Lessar and her sister.

###

Lessar had regained consciousness mid-fall and turned herself upright, landing unharmed on a branch with the help of her dragon tail. Her stole was also in tatters, making it unusable. She discarded it and went ground side, where she would be safe from attacks from above.

As soon as she landed the wind blew and several speeding blurs entered her peripheral vision. She ducked and narrowly avoided being skewered by…leaves? The wind swirled, and surrounding her were a dozen _Lau _Kapua—golem made from leaves—that looked positively murderous.

Lessar sighed. "That _kerling beiskaldi_, she destroyed my feather cloaks and now she's attacking me with leaf golems in a forest. I guess she has a grudge against me," she said as she reached in the New Light bag and pulled out her Steel Glove. "Wind spells won't be much use on you guys—offensively anyway."

The Kapua circled around her and raised their arms. A gale blew, and the leaves from the trees and the ground around her levitated, forming a dome. The dome was made of leaves that could be fired from any direction, at any time. She was trapped.

As the leaves flew like bullets, Lessar held her Steel Glove—using it to grab the air itself like a flag—and performed a dance with it. As a dozen came from above, she swung the makeshift flag vertically, the wind deflecting them. As five came from the right, she twirled and avoided them, simultaneously swing the Steel Glove to knock down more coming from a different angle. The numbers continued to increase to unbelievable digits, with Lessar moving faster and faster, becoming a bewitching flag dancer, until she gathered enough air with each swing.

She slammed the Steel Glove into the ground and chanted, "Vindr Lind!" (Wind Shield!)

A dome of air expanded outward and knocked away the leaves temporarily. Next, she kissed her right index finger, and it glowed with magical energy. "Brenna Unnr!"Burning Wave! Lessar yelled, as she wrote the rune of Kauno in the air—risting would be the proper term—numerous times as a bind rune, and wild, roaring flames bellowed from them. The runes of flame summoned them, as she supplied her magical energy to fuel the flames. The flames rolled over all, save for Lessar, and swallowed the forest surrounding her.

It was safe to say that there were no more Kapua around her.

She was exhausted from the effort and dance, but she resolved to find Mikoto before she rested.

###

The beautiful waterfall was now a smoldering slag. With the true power of the Level 5 unleashed, the massive heat generated from her attacks left nothing alive. However, she was in pain from her previous injuries and her vision was tunneling. As she stumbled to the ground, she saw a ghostly child walking closer to her.

Once the child was close to the electromaster, she reached her hand out and touched her on the forehead.

The world became black after that.

###

Lessar found Mikoto and #10142 underneath a tree, both with signs of being injured and then treated through magic. Not just emergency aid to keep them alive, but no visible injuries at all. A twig snapped and she looked to her right, only to see the ghostly child hiding behind a tree, her face exposed slightly.

_That's not a human_, Lessar thought. The calm serenity, yet overwhelming nature of power that it possessed was not of the mortal realm.

"You're a Kahuna Kapua," Lessar stated her guess. "You healed them? Are you one from Koleamoku?"

The child disappeared, turning into flowers and collapsing into a pile on the ground, after giving her a slight nod.

"I think even the gods have limits when it comes to GREMLIN."

Lessar sat next to the two and drifted to sleep, after setting up a ward to shroud them. She was tired as well.

###

"What the hell is wrong with you two brats?" an esper using a futuristic cane asked the crying Last Order and breathless Worst. "Why the hell are you two upset!"

"A facility in Hawaii was attacked," Misaka Worst, who was now leaning against the door frame, answered. "#10142 was there."

Minutes after Misaka Worst explained the situation from what she could pick up off the network, she asked him, "Misaka wants to know, what are you going to do?"

After looking at the crying Last Order and exhausted Worst, he stepped outside.

And he flipped the switch on his collar.

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

The reason they call #10142, Eight is because when you add those numbers up, that's what you get.

M.E.S.D.O (Mass Electrical Sisters Discharge Orb) is Eight's new weapon. For those TYPE-Moon fans, you will notice the charging method is similar to Fragarach. Instead of a gray orb, it's a sphere made of numerous black hexagons with a core at the center that becomes connecting point of electricity linking all the pieces together and evenly charging them. Depending on the command she issues, the pattern changes on discharge. It releases far more electricity than a single Sister could, due to something special inside. It also has an effect on the Sisters network and electronics due to a flaw, hence the severing at the end, which causes Eight to "shut down" temporarily.

Old Norse isn't my strong point, but those words should match, with Aser being the word "us" derived from the name of the Norse gods. As for the swear words, one is "D**n" and the other is "Old Hag B***ch". Lessar has a potty mouth towards Pel since her spiritual items were destroyed by her. She'll probably snap if her Steel Gove is destroyed.

I wasn't really planning to have Accelerator in this fanfic as more than a cameo, but then I thought about it. He promised to protect the Sisters and there's no way that he wouldn't find out about the attack when a Sister was connected to the network with Last Order and Misaka Worst there.

Lau = leaf, Pokaku = stone, and Pupua = shell.

Kahuna means caretaker in some translations I found, but in others they were healers, wizards, and magicians. Koleamoku is patron to all Kahuna, the God of the Art of Healing, so his demigod would specialize in it.

New Light as a group is on the island, but Lessar is the only one involved in this, as they normally only help for the good of the U.K. and they are on vacation. For now.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

The moment the trio stepped into the camp, which was a dug out cavern that was illuminated by floating candles with green flames, the entrance was sealed by a cave-in that left Kamijou, Orsola, and Index separated from the forces Birdway loaned them. Those forces were then accosted by Kapua outside the entrance and were currently fighting.

With no choice, they stepped further inside, until they reached a ridiculously wide room with a ceiling so high they couldn't see it beyond the darkness. After they all stepped through the entrance, it was sealed by a drop-down stone door, three inches thick. The exit on the other end of the room did the same. Since it was done using technology built into the walls-not magic—the Imagine Breaker and Index were powerless.

"Mister Kamijou, Miss Index," called Orsola, who pointed at the ceiling of the room. Several olivine and obsidian gemstones rained from above and hit the stone floors below. They melted into the ground like they were sinking in water. "It would appear we have more important matters."

Mud exploded from the floor like geysers, solidifying and becoming _Pokaku_ made of stone, with patches of black and green similar to a Dalmatian. Their numbers were about fifty, and each of them was over eight feet tall, with a strong build. They attacked in mass.

Kamijou wordlessly clenched his right fist and charged. He ducked under one's massive arm and punched it, following up by back-fisting the other one on his right. The two turned into pebbles after the sound of shattering glass resonated through the air. Kamijou rolled to avoid a surprise attack from behind and continued his assault.

"Sebastian!" Orsola cried. "_Possesso!_"(Possession!)

The owl's eyes glowed ghostly blue, and a blue blaze emerged from his cross and coated the bird golem entirely. Sebastian flew from her shoulder towards one of the patchwork _Pokaku_—one at the center of the group. He flew headfirst into it and…entered it.

The hard body surface of the _Pokaku_ looked like a ripple in water. It beat at its chest, as if trying to claw out its own heart. It writhed in pain, before a ghostly blue aura overtook it and the eyes were the same color. The overshadowed _Pokaku_ quickly grabbed one of the others by its head, placed it in a head lock, and repeatedly rammed its free fist into the other's torso, before twisting the head off. The head fell to the floor, where it was crushed by Sebastian's foot, as he used the rest of the headless body as a bludgeoning tool against a few others.

A _Pokaku_ was preparing to smash Kamijou from behind when Index and Orsola shot each other a look. "T T T L—Turn to the Left," Index chanted; the _Pokaku's_ massive fist was redirected to its left and slammed into another, which went flying backwards. "M B F P A D C O G—Let both legs be positioned in parallel and lose balance!" Orsola followed up; it fell on what would be considered its butt.

Orsola wasn't as proficient as Index, but her presence was a great help. Though she hated violence, she would do her best to help those in need. She wouldn't raise her arms to harm another person—she wasn't an aggressive person—but now she could be passive-aggressive, using their technique against them. Spell Intercept could only be used on magic that she comprehended, and after spending so much time under Sherry's wings, she _understood_ golems. They may have bore the name of various Kapua, but these were little more than improvised golems.

Sebastian was busy decimating several _Pokaku _at once. He had just gotten finished ripping the arms off of one—followed by beating it with its own arms until it was gravel—when another tried to attack him from behind. He back-elbowed it in the face, grabbed its arm and twisted it until the elbow was upright, and then slammed his own elbow into it, shattering the entire arm—Index winced at the scene—before finishing it by knocking it over and punching it until it was a pile of rocks—pebbles flew everywhere.

Kamijou slid between the legs of the _Pokaku_ in front of him and touched it while passing. He didn't watch it fall to pieces, as another had quickly moved to smash him with its fist while he was on the ground. He leaned up and his right fist met its right fist, leaving him covered in pebbles.

"B F T C O G—Cross both legs, lose your balance!" Index and Orsola chanted in tandem, forcing the Kupua charging them to smash into each other. For these two, who could only support others, front line fighting was out of the question. Defeating a powerful, enemy magician head-on was the same. But against these puppets, they took control over their strings and made them dance how they wanted to.

One _Pokaku_ had tried to leap onto Sebastian from behind and hold him for another to beat on him. Sebastian kicked the one in front onto the ground and headbutted the one behind him, before grabbing the unfortunate golem's face and tossing it onto the one on the ground. He then finished up by jumping in the air and pulling off an elbow drop that left a crater in the ground, which was filled by the pebbles that remained of the other two.

"NUOOOOH!" Kamijou roared, as he smashed his right fist into another one. It had been the twentieth one that met its end at the hands of the Imagine Breaker. He was getting tired.

"Touma!" Index called out to him, attempting to warn him of the one behind him. "C F A—Turn upwards," she chanted in Notarikon code, diverting its fist upwards to avoid having it smash him. Kamijou turned and slammed his fist into it, the sound of shattering glass following it.

Sebastian threw one of the _Pokaku_ towards the sealed exit and it broke through it—at the cost of being smashed apart. At this point, the rest of them—five to be exact—had grouped together. Sebastian made the "come get some" gesture with the overshadowed fingers, and they went into a full on charge at him. Sebastian let owl a high pitched hoot and performed a running charge, his arm chambered.

Kamijou looked over at the carnage—in progress—caused by the owl. He then looked at Index, who covered her eyes at the slaughter, and Orsola, who actually look like she pitied them—he didn't blame her. "_That _was a gift?"

"He's normally so calm and friendly…" Orsola muttered. "Although, Sherry said he might be a _little_ different in combat."

The last enemy shattered, and Sebastian let out a victorious hoot. He marched over to Orsola, who patted the stone body. It seemed like everything was done when a huge peridot floated down from the ceiling, levitating about twenty feet in the air.

The scattered pebbles flew towards the massive crystal, clumping together into a menacing shape. A _Pokaku_ three times larger than the rest had formed, with a body made of the gems and stones. The torso and head were made of solid stone, its arms and legs were peridots, its eyes were olivine, and it was wielding a spear made of obsidian.

It roared and shook the entire cavern. Stone spires emerged from the ground in a line, racing towards the trio. Sebastian grabbed Orsola and Index, jumping away and sprinting towards the exit, where they would be safe. Kamijou jumped up—at a slight angle—and landed on the slope of the rising spire, which carried him into the air. He leapt towards the massive creation and slammed his fist into it.

Or at least he intended to. The _Pokaku _swung the spear diagonally—at a speed that should have been impossible to see for a normal person—and tried to bisect Kamijou, who changed the direction of his right hand after sensing a flash of danger from its direction. The obsidian spear shattered, but Kamijou was still thrown to the ground.

The giant moved to crush him with its foot.

"Sebastian!" Orsola called for her faithful owl, which put its entire borrowed body into a jumping tackle, slamming into it. The creation was bigger, but with one leg up, its balance was shaken and it missed him by a reasonable margin. Kamijou shook his head and stood up, his right fist clenched.

The giant roared, slamming its massive fist into the overshadowed _Pokaku_, before lifting it. It threw Sebastian in Kamijou's direction—Index and Orsola both tried Spell Intercept, but no changes occurred—and he ran forward and slipped into a slide, surfing under the airborne obstacle.

"Mister Kamijou! It's moving under autonomous control! We can't intercept it, and Sebastian can only possess something once every few hours!" Orsola told him.

"It can control the stone in this cavern as well! The signal from the magician has disappeared—he's probably fled!" Index followed up.

"Then we end this NOW!" Kamijou roared as he charged the monster. It stomped on the ground and shook the floor, costing Kamijou his balance and left him on the floor again. A sharp prick from inside his head told him that danger was coming and he looked up. Its arm was raised back and ready to hurl a fistful of stones at him, bludgeoning the Imagine Breaker to death.

Sebastian, apparently having gained a second wind, jumped with his overshadowed body. Soaring above Kamijou, the body clung to the arm. He twisted and pulled, until the arm was severed and crumbled to pieces. Sebastian then backed up, next to Kamijou.

Kamijou leaped in the air, and Sebastian positioned his overshadowed hand underneath him. The owl's hoot could be heard, as he threw Kamijou—right fist first—at the giant. Before it impacted, the head of the giant detached itself and fell to the ground, as the sound of shattering glass left its body in a pile of green, gray, and black pebbles.

Kamijou tried to walk back to the girls, but he stumbled midway and fell to the ground. "It's over," he said, unaware that the head was still functioning, until a stone cuff appeared from the ground and trapped him.

"Crap!" Kamijou said, tugging at his arm. The stone cuff bound his right arm, well above the reach of his right hand. The head levitated and began to glow red, letting out a menacing roar that shook the cavern. A number of boulders fell from the ceiling onto Sebastian, pinning him.

"It's self-destructing! Move, Touma!" Index cried, foolishly rushing towards him. A bright light was followed by an enormous force, as the explosion knocked the nun backwards into a wall, knocking her habit off her head. She began crying, as blood began to drip, dying her light-blue, wildly tossed hair with red. She cried, not from the pain, but because Kamijou was at the center, with the Imagine Breaker sealed away.

Orsola ran over and began pulling out spiritual items to use her healing magic. "It is fine, Miss Index." The dust lingering in the air concealed the location, but outlined a black silhouette over where Kamijou should have been. When it settled, Sebastian was positioned in front of Kamijou like a stone wall.

"Sebastian, please free him," Orsola asked politely. Sebastian hooted and complied, using the overshadowed hand to the break the stone cuff. Kamijou thanked Sebastian, who released his control over the _Pokaku_—signaled by its eyes ceasing their glow and the aura vanishing—and flew away. The _Pokaku_ crumbled, and the owl landed on Orsola's shoulders.

###

The trio made it into the deepest portions of the cavern.

Numerous corpses were placed in a methodical pattern over an elaborate ritual circle, which was a seven-pointed star, surrounded by concentric circles that were divided by eight lines radiating from the inner-most circle to the outer-most circle.

As expected, the magician commanding the _Pokaku _had fled once the giant was released.

Despite all of them feeling nauseous and horrified at the sight, they proceeded to gather whatever information that they could. Kamijou took photos with his phone, Index analyzed the ritual circle and pattern of the bodies, and Orsola said an extensive prayer for the dead.

It was all they could do.

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

See, I told you Orsola would be helpful! Those lessons with Sherry really paid off! I might even write an Omake about it.

As you may have noticed, Sebastian's fighting style is…well, BRUTAL! The fanon canon reason is because Sherry had crafted Sebastian in order to protect Orsola, so that she wouldn't lose another friend like she lost Ellis. So on autonomous control in battle, it becomes aggressive. And It. Was. AWESOME.

Kamijou has precognition to a limited extent, and I've tried to manifest it without him being too aware, sort of like an Sixth Sense.

Peridot is a gem native to Hawaii, considered by locals to be the Tears of Pele, Obsidian is also native to Hawaii, along with Olivine, which is called Peridot when gemstone quality.

I'm going to try—keyword _try_—to finish this up before the next volume of NT comes out next month. We also now have a Tvtropes page: /Fanfic/LightningAndWind

Next up, a battle between Birdway's forces and GREMLIN's Kapua and magicians. It _will_ be bloody, as are all wars.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

War.

It wasn't pleasant, and no sane person truly liked it. Yet, no matter what, it always came back. A reoccurring hell, that transcended time, buried in the hearts of man. A serious battle between multiple magicians wasn't considered a conflict.

It was a small scale war.

Dawn-Colored Sunlight had a reputation for doing whatever it took to accomplish their goal—even professional magicians found it difficult to swallow the number of corpses they left in their wake. The sad thing was, they weren't even the worst Golden-style cabal.

But that darkness was the world of magicians.

"This is the only warning I'll give you," Birdway said, her voice echoed across the mile long stretch of land, using a spiritual tool. "Surrender!" she bellowed, not that she expected them to do so. She was just putting on an illusion of fair play.

At the rear of the Kapua army, which numbered over a thousand, a male magician with a mechanical like voice responded. "That sound like a joke coming from the one with the worse odds. I, Kiak, boast the power to command this mighty army. Why should I surrender to traitors that saved the Monster of Science?"

"We simply acted in our own interest," she responded. "The line between Science and Magic are arbitrary at best, the two sides may even be considered black and white, but some day they will merge and it will become an even grayer area. But GREMLIN has jumped into the gray area too hastily, and you must be stopped before you overturn the world before we can take over it."

"Hm," the mechanical voice spoke, "so those are the words of an overambitious child. I am not impressed. You should leave this to the adults and run play with dolls."

A snapping sound was heard from Birdway.

_He's going to pay for that_, Mark Space thought, dressed in his formal suit and scarf. _She won't let that go._

The Dawn-Colored Sunlight boasted over a thousand cloaked members, but they rarely all met at once. Otherwise they would be vulnerable to attacks from other factions. Her current forces consisted of a hundred magicians. They faced a force of more than ten times their numbers, consisting of _Pokaku_, _Pupu_, _Lau_, and _Ahi_—Flame—Kupua, along with about a dozen enemy magicians.

"You think you low-level goons are going to stop us?" Birdway asked the enemy magicians. She then looked at the small army of a hundred behind her. "These things aren't even worth wiping the dirt off my boots. Obliterate them!" she ordered, not even considering the magicians human anymore. The cloaked magicians charged towards the Kapua.

"Kill them all!" the magician Kiak—which was short for Ki'i Haku or Doll Master—yelled.

The war began.

The odds were never great when one force was outnumbered Ten-to-One. Occasionally, you would hear tales of the smaller numbers triumphing, putting everything on the line and walking back home as heroes. History had shown that this was possible.

This wasn't one of those times.

The Dawn-Colored Sunlight was used to performing rituals and ceremonies that called down Telesma. But that process required time, which was scare on the battlefield. Instead, they fought with hastily made spiritual items called String Cutters, which were designed to sever both the connection to the magician and stop their autonomous functions, based on the data they received in the attack yesterday, hoping it would have prepared them for the battle against such a number of golems.

Things may have gone differently, if Kiak weren't there. He had modified his body into that of a golem in order control this many at once. As long as he could refine his life force into magical energy, the body didn't matter. Using a method of bypassing their altered spiritual items, the members of Dawn-Colored Sunlight were forced them to rely on their backups instead.

One man tried to fend off a _Pokaku_, only to be smashed into a stain on the ground that was a mixture of red and purple. Three women worked in tandem to destroy several _Ahi_ by sealing them in an air bubble and then ripping the oxygen out, leaving nothing to burn, before compressing the air until cores were destroyed. They were quickly mutilated by several dozen _Lau_ leaves, which were as sharp as blades, and bled out.

The _Pupu_ Kapua donned spiral shell lances, which they swept from side to side, knocking several magicians down, before they skewered them. They usually followed up by constantly impaling the magician until there were more holes than a slice of Swiss cheese. The lances were then withdrawn, dragging slush the consisted of the innards, and aimed at the next target.

The enemy magicians were just as brutal. While the members of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight were struggling with the Kapua, they picked them off from behind. One member had a spell blast through her throat, narrowly—or rather deliberately—missing her spine. Instead of dying instantly, she suffered. Another two were bound in place, watching in terror as they were helplessly watched an _Ahi _Kapua get closer and closer, the heat slowly burning them, until they were charcoal.

_One of the greatest cabals in England, falling so easily_, Kiak thought. His forces were dominating; soon their numbers would be less than half. He then noticed Birdway watching her forces being slaughtered along with Mark Space, who had been ordered to not interfere, and decided to strike them in a moment of arrogance.

Using over a hundred feathers as cores, he mixed them with the dirt in the ground, and nearly a hundred birds, made of hardened soil and feathers, flew high into the air and targeted Birdway, going into a dive. Before they could reach her, a staff was in Birdway's hand. She covered her mouth as she yawned, aiming the end of the staff at the aerial Kapua.

"_Summon Explosion: Hundred Bullets_," Birdway muttered. Wielding a red staff—the color symbolized the Archangel Michael and the staff was the symbolic weapon of modern western Golden-style magic—Leivinia Birdway manipulated Telesma, which belonged to the angels, rather than mana to create one hundred small, sphere clusters.

Pulling the trigger of a flintlock in her mind, the spheres flew through the air. On impact with the birds, the small clusters, which had roughly a radius of five inches, swelled into domes that had a twelve foot radius, drawing a line of dome shaped explosions in the air.

"You went so far to modify your body, and you're only able to control _this_ many?" she said in a mocking tone. "I think I might cry."

Birdway was ruthless in execution.

She was unreasonable to both allies and enemies, even when begged for mercy—she didn't even treat others as human beings—barring a few exceptions. She possessed power and skill that were overwhelming. She was a magician who could fight evenly with Saints, who were born with a body similar to the Son of God.

She was just a twelve year old. Who planned to rule over society, swallowing Science and Magic alike in the process. In other words, she was the ideal magician. Only a magic god would garner more attention in her presence.

"This is pathetic," Birdway said, as she watched her forces get overwhelmed by numbers. Ceremonial magic were the most used magic of Golden-style cabals. But they required more time and work to set up, only Birdway and Mark Space could use them effectively in active combat.

"Mark, end this in five minutes," she told her direct subordinate. "And bring me that guy's head."

Mark Space sighed and headed into the chaos below.

###

Mark Space was a man dyed with European colors, fully immersed in its culture. He had his own since of morality. He was a refined English gentleman, who wielded minor arcana tarot cards—specializing in the sword suit, which fit his alignment with wind—which left him with fourteen different spells.

As he slowly walked onto the battlefield, he made note of the most problematic Kapua, and the magicians who were causing them so much trouble. Five minutes was a bit unreasonable, even for him. He wasn't a monster at the level of Saints like Birdway.

Nevertheless, he drew a card from the deck holder on his hip.

With a sleight of hand, that seemingly one card became ten. He threw the cards, which were all the Knight of Swords—Birdway ensured he had multiple copies of the sword suit—and they cut through the troublesome Kupua—penetrating their cores and demolishing them with little effort—and the enemy magician's defenses like hot knives through butter, scoring a kill. Since the Knight of Swords represented Direct Aggression, the wind rode on the cards and became razor sharp gales.

_So, he's her direct subordinate_, Kiak thought. _He needs to be dealt with, along with the rest_.

A fifty-foot _Pokaku_—made of solid stone that was far beneath the ground—rose from the land, smashing its foot down and crushing three members of the Dawn Colored Sunlight, leaving them as sticky stains on its right foot. Many of the surviving members tried to destroy it with their spiritual items, but they did no real damage.

That was when Mark Space jumped, filling the tarot card in his hand with power, and told them to retreat—which they instantly complied with, even fleeing just past Birdway—but close enough to defend her. They knew what was coming. And they were scared.

He swung the Three of Swords card, and the air itself was cut by a gale that collided with the giant _Pokaku_. When air met earth, the chain reaction created an explosion that bombarded a wide area with large stones that flew at high speeds, demolishing over a hundred of the Kapua army and throwing up a cloud of dust and dirt. This was only the beginning.

Using the lack of visibility a shroud, he commanded all the remaining _Ahi_ Kapua to concentrate their fire on Birdway. Flames were launched like bullets at Birdway, who didn't bother to try to move, as a One of Swords card landed near her feet. In a flash, Mark Space had returned to her side, as if he teleported. With the Eight of Swords in hand, a spiraling shield of air blocked that attack and scattering the flame bullets in all directions, due to the rotation. He reversed the card and the shield became a saw that was launched forward at a horizontal angle.

The wind saw tore through the _Ahi_, and several dozen more Kupua, before dissipating. Kiak moved him straight to the top of the "must kill immediately" list, as Mark Space teleported back to the other One of Swords card he left beforehand—both of the cards now left unusable.

Using invisible threads of magical energy, he turned the bones of the fallen magicians into cores. The sounds the skeletons made as they ripped away at their own flesh were sickening. They kept at it until they were literally walking skeletons.

"Ka-poe-kina-lwi," the magician announced their new identities, no longer magicians. "Kill him."

The _Lwi _Kapua howled, ripping the sharp bones off their rib cages to use as blades. They surrounded Mark Space in all directions, closing in on him. He would surely be killed…If he didn't have the Reversed Nine of Swords tarot card in his hand, filled with magical energy.

The Nine of Swords, in a reversed position, gave him premonitions of his painful death on the battlefield, only a split second before they occurred, and only for a limited time of one minute. That was all he needed. He nonchalantly avoided every attack that came his way, leaving several Seven of Swords tarot card attached to the _Lwi_ like stickers, before the effects wore off and he left the card on the ground.

With a snap of his fingers, the Seven of Swords cards activated, and the _Lwi_ tilted their heads, before attacking everything around them, which were the rest of the Kupua. Just as planned. After all, the Seven of Swords was one of betrayal. Mark Space was safely floating in the air, with the Four of Swords card he activated.

The card lost its effect rather quickly, but he was high enough to make his next move anyway. He then pulled out a King of Swords, which commanded power over the wind. Filling it to the brim with magical energy, the card became shrouded in wind and created a mile long sword of air.

He swung it down and the sword ruptured, sending a massive hurricane force wave of air to the right and left of it. The waves of air carried millions of invisible swords that tore through everything that was caught by it. The number of Kapua left wasn't even in the triple digits.

Awestruck and afraid, Kiak used the absolute limit of his ability and sent hundreds of invisible threads all over, everything the touched became a core, which recreated the Kapua army he once held. He could only control up to 1,200 Golems at once, that was the limit even with the artificial body, and he could no longer craft them either.

_But there's no way that he could destroy them all again_, Kiak thought, coughing up the fluid that kept his artificial body moving. It was made from the reproduced scraps of the collect Academy City technology harvested after the appearance of the Golden Hands during the war, and his mind and soul were transferred using a ritual.

"Mark," Birdway called. "One minute."

He silently drew a card, the Six of Swords, which represented passage. He flung the card forward and it left a trail of spiraling wind, a tunnel in the center. The passage tunnel carried him forward, as if he was being pushed by a giant fan, protected by the walls of air on the outside.

_The table is set_, Mark Space thought. _Time to end this_, he concluded, landing in the center of the new army. The tarot cards he left scattered around began glowing.

Mark Space did not discard his tarot cards, only scattering them, turning the land they had fought on into a table for the cards. This was a ritual, where the Dawn-Colored Sunlight specialized in. He raised the Ten of Swords and called out to an Archangel.

"Archangel Uriel, he who commands wind! Shine your divine light of punishment on those who oppose us!" Mark Space pronounced to the heavens, as if it was a decree.

The sound of trumpets came from nowhere, and a beautiful golden light parted the stormy clouds with a radiant force so great, the members of the Dawn-Colored Sunlight couldn't help but fall to their knees and cry as they stared up into the sky. A golden twister touched down, and drew all the Kapua into it, where they were grinded, by countless golden blades, into particles and scattered into the air. It looked as though golden snow was falling to earth.

This was the power and style of Birdway's head subordinate, the Ace—second only to Birdway herself.

Kiak reasonably decided to flee at this point. Like a terrified monkey. Mark Space had less than 30 seconds, so he drew one last card.

He flung the One of Swords card towards the magician. It emitted a soft glow, and Mark Space's body vanished, only to reappear when the card landed in front of the magician, who he struck with a whip-like upwards kick to the jaw. The head was ripped away from the artificial body.

###

"Not so mighty now, are you?" Birdway asked the bodiless puppet master. "Are you prepared?"

"Do your worst," he told her in defiance, "I feel no pain."

"Like I haven't heard that before," she rolled her eyes. "So, with you out of the way, that's the last we'll see the last of these golems, right?"

"In the end, I was just one of ten who became like this," Kiak explained in arrogance, as he revealed just enough information in hopes of throwing them into despair. "The other nine, will command an army nine times the size of this. You're forces have dwindled. Even with the Monster of Science, you can't win."

"So, even the puppet master is a puppet to someone else?" she muttered. "We left a couple of specialist behind at the hotel, didn't we, Mark?" she asked.

"Yes," he responded.

"Good," Birdway put on a smile that terrified them all, the smile of a true sadist. "Then let's see if we can't get some nerves attached to his head. I'm interested in seeing how much agony this puppet can handle. And set up a room with silencing spells. We don't want to keep the rest of the hotel up for the next few days, while I play with my new toy."

Kiak's face twisted in terror. Mark Space pulled out the Two of Swords, which represented the separation of mind and body, and Kiak fell unconscious.

"The rest of you," she yelled to the survivors, "clean up here."

The mutilated corpses and remains didn't faze her. This sort of nightmarish scene was common place in a battle between magicians; being born into this world meant getting used to it. Of all of the magicians there, Mark Space was the only one who had such a sad look on his face.

"If it makes you feel better, you can make a list and notify their next of kin," she told her subordinate. "At least then someone will grieve for them."

That was the only bit of kindness she showed. So the deaths would not be completely wiped away and hidden in the darkness. So that someone would remember them.

Before anyone could move, a white figure landed in with a force that cracked the ground, staring at Birdway.

"What the hell happened here?"

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

Yep, that was pretty dark stuff…welcome to the world of magicians, where cannon fodder die in horrible ways…I should have given them all names ad backgrounds so the readers could sympathize with them.

Lwi means bones, think Spartoi from Greek mythology.

I got some material from the SP Volume on Stiyl and Mark Space chapters. The reason the Ten of Swords activated a different effect is because he set the table with different cards.

Telesma is downright poisonous to humans if used. Only Sasha got away with it and she couldn't have children anymore as a result. Acqua got knocked from Superman to Badass Normal when he tried. Birdway and Mark use it by storing it in their tools, although Birdway can do much more.

Next chapter, all the forces have gathered and Mikoto meets Accelerator.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Mikoto leaned her back against the wall of the hotel room, staring at the clone of her that was lying on the bed motionless. There was nothing that could be done by the magicians, as her problem existed in the depths of science. She would remain like that, as a broken doll, until a miracle occurred.

Powerless. That's what she felt. Unable to save anyone in the facility—anyone who treated a Sister like a real person couldn't be bad—and too slowly to redirect the bolt that sent Lessar and her into the trees below. Had someone not healed her, would she even be alive?

Mikoto had considered praying—which was saying a lot coming from an Esper—when the door was suddenly kicked open. A pure white being with red eyes seemed almost angelic in the florescent light. But she knew this man already.

He was a killer.

Mikoto looked at him with shock and terror. Fear and anger began welling up like geysers as Accelerator's eyes met hers. She felt like nothing more than an insect to him. He wasn't all that interested in her either.

But then he turned his gaze over to the sleeping Sister. Was he going to kill her? Had the experiment resumed?

The racing thoughts in her head caused her to decide her fate, then and there. Even if the clone of her was now a broken doll, she wouldn't allow him to destroy her. Without asking or even considering the consequences, she prepared to unleash her signature move on him. Accelerator looked unfazed by the killing intent, as he flipped the electrode on. Manipulating the vectors at his feet, he vanished from sight for an instant and had plowed his elbow into Mikoto's stomach, causing her to kneel over in pain.

"The Original…huh?" Accelerator rolled his eyes. "Perfect, just perfect. Did you even consider that unleashing the attack would demolish this room right on top of her?"

"What are you doing here?" Mikoto asked, struggling to pick herself up. "Y-You came to resume the experiment, didn't you?"

"You shouldn't even be in this type of situation," he told her, ignoring her accusations.. "This world is one of darkness, even deeper than anything you've ever stepped in. People like you should stay in the light, away from the darkness. Otherwise, it'll swallow you."

"You're giving me advice?" Mikoto stared in disbelief, heat rising from her lungs. "After everything an evil bastard like you did, you're trying to be helpful? Are you trying to wipe away yours sins? Do you think I'll forgive you after you killed over 10,000 of my sisters!"

"What? You want me to say I'm sorry for killing them like pigs to the slaughter? I could tell you that, but it wouldn't change anything. What's done is done. Whether or not I regret it doesn't matter, the only thing that matters is what I do from here on."

He walked up to the doll that was once a clone of the Level 5 and placed his hand on her forehead. Manipulating the disconnected Sister's brain in a method similar he did to Last Order, he connected to the countless, individual ties between the brain and the network, and rebooted them, reconnecting the once severed connection. The pinnacle of Espers was using his completely overpowered abilities—which were at the level of a third-tier angel, at the very least—and skills to save a single girl and bring stability to the network of nearly 10,000.

Eight opened her eyes, finally awake.

Accelerator flipped the electrode off and began walking off with his cane.

"What are you playing at?" Mikoto asked, electricity resting in her palm. "You think you can come in here and play hero? Do you think that if you do one good deed, you can redeem all the evil you've done? Save one to make up for the rest you've killed?"

"I don't have to answer you," he leaned on the cane at the entrance to the door. "Good? Evil? Those are only roles that society came up with. I'm beyond them. As for you, either you get stronger, or leave before you get killed. Having the brat cry because of the death of the Original would only cause me more headaches."

Mikoto prepared to blast him, until Eight spoke up. "Please do not attack him, asks Misaka with sincerity." Her words halted the attack of the electric princess. She then thanked Accelerator.

"Tch…such stupidity," he mumbled before walking out and shutting the door.

###

Birdway called another meeting to order. All the previous members were in attendance, with one exception.

"Where's short-hair?" Index asked.

"She's taking care of her sister," Kamijou responded.

"Leave her," Accelerator told them, apparently involved in this matter now. "Someone like her shouldn't be involved in this sort of thing."

"Be that as it may," Mark Space began, "she's invaluable at the moment. With so few numbers now, we need as many allies as we can obtain, in order to stop Mali."

"Who?" Kamijou asked

"The ring leader of this operation," Birdway added to the conversation. "It seems that this Mali is attempting to summon Kanaloa."

Index swallowed. All the magicians got eerily quiet. Before Kamijou could ask, Index intercepted him. "Touma, Kanaloa is a god. Nearly as powerful as an Archangel, if we're lucky."

Now everyone who was on the battlefield in Russia was silent. They knew how strong the Archangel was, and if that power was put into enemy hands, it would be a hell on earth for all sides. But, if they used the Imagine Breaker…

"And before anyone suggests his right hand," Birdway started, pointing at Kamijou, "according to the info we gathered, they were looking for that core thingy to sustain and regenerate Kanaloa's existence in the world indefinitely. He won't be able to negate it fast enough for it to work."

Well, that plan was shot.

"Where's this core at?" Accelerator asked. "It was the reason that facility was attacked according to the network, and the one who ran had it. But even she didn't see it in her pouch. If we find it and destroy it, then his plans all go up in flames."

"We don't know," Birdway said, "I sent the surviving members to search for it. They'll scour or level that jungle in order to find it. But, judging by the flow of magical energy and information we gained, he's planning to summon Kanaloa tomorrow. We leave in the morning."

Kamijou and Accelerator looked at each other, seemingly having a telepathic conversation. Kamijou then raised his hand. "Does everyone have to participate?"

"No," Birdway shook her head. "If you're afraid to die, then you can run away. But if we fail, you won't be able to run far enough to be safe."

"Then can I ask to have someone left behind?"

###

Mikoto had been sitting on the rooftop for the last few hours, watching as the horizon went from twilight to night, thinking about everything that happened today. She was powerless to prevent her sister from becoming a doll, only for the one person she would never forgive to do what she couldn't. Not only that, but he had a point. In Academy City, she could at least count herself as one of the strongest around, but so far it seemed like every other magician was even stronger.

"Misaka requests that you come inside before you catch a cold, Misaka asks sincerely." Eight spoke from behind her, at the entrance to the stairwell. Mikoto was happy she could move around again, but right now, she wanted to be alone and think things through. However, there was a question she wanted to ask.

That question was like water, ready to boil over and scald her if she didn't ask. "Why did you stop me?

"Because Misaka did not want to see her savior and Nee-san fighting, Misaka says with while thinking of how to explain this." Mikoto waited patiently until Eight spoke up. "Does Nee-san know about the Third Production Plan, Misaka asks in curiosity?"

"Third…" Mikoto mumbled, as she went pale from the thought. "No, you don't mean—"

"—Exactly, Misaka says with a serious look on her face. The Misakas were all going to be disposed of and replaced by older versions of Nee-san."

Mikoto's heart skipped a beat. Despite everything that she went through to destroy the bases, despite Kamijou's fight against Accelerator, and despite making peace with the rest of the Sisters, they were still going to be slaughtered. She began to shiver.

"That is why all Misakas have acknowledged Accelerator as one of our saviors, Misaka report with a smile on her face," she said, watching the priceless expression on her sister's face. "That man marched into the heart of the darkness and demanded that they halt the production, Misaka reports the administrator's findings."

"…Huh?" Mikoto was understandable confused.

"On the day that the virus was spread and all Misaka's were unable to move, he saved the administrator, Misaka begins narrating his deeds," she told her sister as she walked towards the edge of the rooftop, her tanned skin radiantly reflected in the moonlight. "In Russia, he even spared the life of the third generation Misaka, who sought to kill him, and once again saved the administrator.

"All Misakas see Nee-san as a mother figure and him as a father figure, Misaka reports." She turned and smiled, with the radiant moon behind her, painting a beautiful picture that was immortalized in Mikoto's memory. "He would do anything to protect us. So we trust him in return, Misaka says with her heart."

"But," she clenched her fist, "he still…I can't forgive him. No matter what he's done since then, my anger and hatred won't disappear."

"Then don't," another voice appeared from the stairwell entrance. It was Lessar, in her night gown. "Sorry, I overheard the situation. You don't have to forgive someone to work with them. This world is not one where you can expect to only fight alongside those you like or trust. Sometimes, we have to endure and work with the hatred, not give into it and let it compromise our goals."

"Lessar," Mikoto mumbled.

"He'll be working with us tomorrow," she began, explaining the mission outline to her. Mikoto wasn't given the option of participating in tomorrow's battle. Both Kamijou and Accelerator had requested that she not participate, before she stepped in too deep to get out, but Lessar decided she had a right to participate.

Mikoto was naturally pissed. She resolved to slap him so hard, his harem would feel it. The electricity she gave off left Lessar's hair standing on end.

"The main reason for this was out of concern for your safety, after all the opponent this time could possibly rival an Archangel. But then there's your emotional state too. Not to mention the fact that you're still too green when dealing with magicians."

"They can't do that!" Mikoto bellowed. "Not after everything that we went through!"

"Then, do you have the resolve to kill if necessary?" Lessar asked, a cold look appearing on her face. "This isn't like the Shopping Mall Demonstration. These aren't people being driven into frenzy by rumors; they are convicted magicians who will declare their Sorcery Names the moment we meet. Everything you've seen up to today was a prelude, the real battle is now.

"You know how powerful you are, and you know how devastating that power is. Out of the fear of severely hurting a human, you restrain yourself, but not this time. You've got to hit the enemy with everything you can if you want to stop them. If you hold back, you'll die, and the enemy gets one step closer to their goal."

Mikoto was silent.

"If you don't have the resolve, then stay here with your sister," Lessar turned around. "No one will blame you. In fact, it's better if you don't have to stain your hands with blood. If you want, I can have the other members of New Light watch you. They've made their decision: to stay out of it for the most part—minus some long distance observation."

"No…" Mikoto looked up at the night sky. "I'm going. I swore, after I watched him go off to fight Accelerator, after I watched him go off to an unknown battle while injured beyond belief, and after I watched him disappear during the war…I swore to not stay back and do nothing. So that I'd never have to feel the pain of being left behind again—waiting for their return like some princess in a story.

"More than that, I wouldn't allow friend to go off to fight alone," she said while staring at Lessar. They'd only met once, before this week, but they had been in a life or death situation and gain each other's respect then. Lessar had been straightforward and honest the entire time, never sugarcoating things.

The girls smiled at each other.

"Misaka is going as well, says Misaka, hoping to join in what seemed to be a bonding experience." Eight added.

The resolve was solidified. The stone pillar that represented Mikoto was encased in unyielding steel that would never break.

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

Kanaloa, a Hawaiian god. More on him next chapter.

Angels are divided into three tiers, which split into three more tiers, in Christianity, the top tier being Seraphims—who take care of the throne of heaven—and the second tier being those who deal with heavenly government, and the third tier being messengers and soldiers, with Principalities, Archangels, and Angels being third-tier. The third tier interact the most with the mortal world. Wikipedia for more info.

Short chapter because I wanted to get the boring stuff out of the way. I originally planned to have Accel give Mikoto a Hannibal Lecture, but I think I've pushed the angst angle way too far. No more angsty Mikoto from now on. She has her resolve, now let's show what she can do with it.

Next chapters will be mostly action, storming the castle, tying up loose ends, facing a god, etc.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Kamijou hung by the railing of the boat. He and Accelerator decided not to get Mikoto involved any further and took action accordingly. She would probably never forgive him, but he'd rather her be alive and hating him, than dead.

Lessar sat on the mast of the boat—despite it moving using a motor—dangling her legs in the air. She had dressed in her New Light outfit, with her bag that could store nearly anything in a hammer space. The rest of New Light would not be participating in the battle, but they gave her several new spiritual items to assist her and Mikoto. Lessar had been oddly silent to Kamijou, but in truth she was holding a telepathic conversation with Misaka Mikoto and Eight, who were in her bag, floating around in what seemed like endless space.

_Kanaloa. He's a major god of their pantheon, who is symbolized by an octopus and commanded the seas, winds, and seismic activities. He was the opposite of the highest power of the Hawaiian Pantheon, Kane, playing as his counter-balance. He was painted as the god of the Underworld and evil harbinger of death, but that wasn't the case originally._

_That element was introduced once Missionaries tried to recast them in the image of the Christianity Trinity, along with him playing Satan. It's basically the same as I told you about the Norse Pantheon. Milu was the original god of the Underworld; but whether he was evil or not is still undetermined. Kanaloa wasn't evil, otherwise he couldn't counter-balance Kane._

_So, if this guy who took Milu's name is using the…what was it?_

_The Eye of Kanaloa, which represents his throne; using the symbol as a medium to reach him, he intends to summon Kanaloa to this plane. Using that core-thingy that your sister had as an energy source, he might be able to sustain it indefinitely. Although, would the symbol alone be enough to reach a god, even based on the idol theory?_

_Misaka reports that the core was not in her pouch when she awakened. Only the M.E.S.D.O, Misaka says while floating in the pocket dimension of this small bag._

_So they may have it already? Either way, can he control a god? _Mikoto asked.

_I don't think so_, Lessar responded. _Fiamma was a special case with the Archangel. But given their nature so far, would GREMLIN need to control it? Or would they just transport it near the headquarters of the Science Side and let it run wild?_

_So, if they could control it, they've got a weapon that can be focused on a target, but if they couldn't then it would just be a bomb that would destroy everything around it indiscriminately?_

_It's actually worse. If they summon Kanaloa in his original state, he would probably be non-aggressive and attempt to return to his throne, which might be bad. But if they summon him as he was painted by the Missionaries…well, it'd be worse than the Archangel, who only attempted to get back to its proper place in heaven. It'd bring about the end of the world…_

Mikoto gulped at the scale of what she was getting involved in. _And that spiky-haired idiot gets involved in this all the time? How is he alive?_

_Made of iron, great allies, and some fairly decent luck—despite what he claims_. Lessar chuckled. _That right hand too. There have been rumors going around that it's of divine origin._

Mikoto was about to say something else when her electroperception began acting up. It felt like numerous dots were waiting in the water below, made of metal and giving off faint electrical signals, almost like…

_Lessar, stop the boat! There are mines in the water!_

Lessar yelled for them to stop the boat, which made Birdway slightly angered at the delay, before she dived into the water, disappearing beneath the surface for several minutes. When she resurfaced and climbed back on the boat, she said, "There are mines all along the path to the island. Science Side."

"Mark, can you do something?" Birdway asked. Her abilities would probably cause more destruction than the mines themselves.

Mark Space shook his head. "Not for all of them. I'd suggest flying as an alternative, but…" he looked over to Kamijou's right hand. That alone would end the attempts at flying. Accelerator probably could have used his abilities to part the ocean like the Moses, but there was a much simpler solution.

Lessar opened her bag, and Misaka Mikoto and Eight emerged.

Birdway had a look on her face that basically said she expected them to come along anyway, Accelerator looked annoyed, Kamijou looked shocked, and the rest were generally uninterested. Mikoto stared at Kamijou; her right hand was not only electrically charged, but filled with some sort of eldritch energy that made Orsola and Sebastian seem on edge, while Birdway pulled out a camera and gave it to Mark Space, telling him not to miss the next shot, and she took notes on this fascinating energy.

Mikoto followed up on her vow.

She slapped him.

* * *

><p>In England…<p>

"Ow," several members of Neccessarius cried at a sharp sting on their faces.

Even the Saint, who was with her friend—the washing machine—was not immune.

* * *

><p>In Academy City…<p>

"Wah!" a child-like teacher cried, with tears in her eyes.

"My face hurts," a girl who was barely noticeable said while rubbing her cheeks.

"W-what was that?" an artificial angel in human form commented.

"What the hell?" a certain—accused—shota-con teleporter looked around for whatever hit her.

"Wow," the brain behind a director said, staring at a piece of chocolate she had bitten on. "These things have a kick!"

"Why do I have the feeling that idiot is behind this?" a girl with an obsession with health goods thought out loud.

"Meow!" the new beast heroine cried.

* * *

><p>On the boat…<p>

"Myougah!" Index let out, "I-Is this sympathetically linked magic? But Espers can't use magic!"

Orsola was silently rubbing her own red cheek, Mikoto had also winced on delivery, and Eight mentioned that the entire Network had suddenly felt pain—except Worst, who was laughing her butt off, and Last Order, who preferred Accelerator. Birdway was the same as Worst.

"Damn," Lessar mumbled, "even I felt that one…she could give Bayloupe lessons."

Kamijou had been knocked overboard with the slap.

"Leave me behind, will you!" Mikoto yelled.

_Fukou da_…were his final thoughts as he sank beneath the waves. Accelerator just walked to the other end of the boat, probably afraid he was next.

###

"Now that that's out of the way," Birdway said before chuckling at the handprint left on Kamijou's face, "can you deal with the mines?"

Mikoto complied, reaching out with her senses and feeling the cold steel of the floating mines in the water. As if countless hands extended from her, the mines were raised out of the water slowly. The numbers were small at first, but as more surfaced, they quickly passed the triple digits and further. GREMLIN probably had no intention of retrieving them once they summoned Kanaloa. If someone else had stumbled into the island's waters by accident, there's no doubt they'd have been sunk.

Index's eyes widened at the presence of magical energy at work. Looking at the sky above, an army of black dots were arriving—all Kapua being controlled by the enemy. Lessar pointed Mikoto in their direction, and the countless hands of magnetism threw every last mine at the dots. The sky briefly became orange, followed by a rain of feathers.

"Well, they know we're coming," Birdway mumbled before turning to Mark Space. "Mark, punch it!"

He set the boat into high gear and they tore through the waves, cutting them as they made their way to the island. They were nearly in sight of the island, when the water in front of them was hit by a cyclone. It intertwined with the water and became a mini-hurricane. It would soon engulf the boat.

Lessar and Mark Space commanded the wind, releasing a cross-blade of razor sharp wind that split the hurricane apart. As a final trial, a blue gem fell from the sky and into the water, which swirled around to take the form of giant, humanoid figure. It tried to bring its colossal hand down on them, to sink them into the deep waters below, but streaking orange trail penetrated the giant's core. The following gale disrupted its body and the water parted, allowing the boat safe passage.

They could see the island dead ahead, and beach was swarming with various Kapua seen during Birdway's battle. There were at least a few hundred gathered where the boat was going to land, and the island was covered with more. Kamijou sighed and said, "Fukou da…those are bad odds…"

"For them," Accelerator said, as he flipped the switch on his collar and leapt off the boat—at least a hundred feet in the air—and gently landed in the gathering of Kapua. Upon contact with the ground, it immediately created crater nine feet deep—one that shifted the ground of that half of the entire island despite only having a radius five times that of the crater itself. Earth was overturned and a fearsome wave of air and earth blasted all the Kapua aside. Some tried to resist, but they were torn to pieces that were scattered by the force nevertheless.

Accelerator jerked his head inwards, telling them to land the boat there, before he stomped the ground and vanished, undoubtedly looking for Milu. The boat slid passed the water and onto the ground, shaking vigorously to the point that it nearly threw Index overboard until Kamijou grabbed her and pulled her in.

"Well," Lessar crouched on the railing, looking at the gathering Kapua that were crashing through the shrubbery of the island, coming after them she was sure. "It looks like we're storming the place."

###

When Lessar said storming, she wasn't kidding. Out of all the people on their side, Kamijou, Index, Orsola, and Eight were the only ones who were still at the level where they could be considered humans. The rest were monsters.

Birdway had her Western Broadsword out instead of her staff, slicing through even stone with what seemed to be no friction, Telesma coursing through her blade from a ritual she performed after the battle yesterday—between tormenting Kiak, who was regretting his words to her—making the weapon on similar to those wielded by minor angels of war. It was safe to assume there was no material on earth it couldn't cut.

Mark Space was using his Tarot cards to the same effect he had during the previous battle. A few of them were infused with Telesma from the last time he called upon Uriel, but those were for emergency use only. Just in case they couldn't prevent the Kanaloa from rising, Telesma would become a necessary weapon.

Mikoto had no hesitation against Kapua. Upon landing on the beach, she immediately carved a deep gash into the beach with her personal reality, creating iron sand en mass to be used as her primary weapon. It swirled around her like a twister, as she used her power over magnetism to create a platform for her to fly on, carrying her sister and Lessar—she tried to make a separate one for Kamijou, but he kept accidently cutting the link between her and it, making it falling apart.

Poor Kamijou had to travel on foot. Eight on the other hand, was using the Network to reconfigure the M.E.S.D.O for anti-personnel use rather than anti-army, which cut her connection with the Network, based on the simulations ran by Last Order. It was still under development, so she wasn't really focusing on the battle—it wasn't like Mikoto needed help, and Lessar had jumped down to get in on the action herself.

When she unlocked the sphere and saw what was at the center, she finally figured out what happened to the perpetual energy core. It was powering the M.E.S.D.O, which was how it could have such a high output at full power. Meanwhile, Accelerator was basically off doing his own thing, killing a few of the puppet masters that tried to attack him, and whatever else got in his way.

At some point, Sebastian possessed the largest _Pokaku_ he could find—a towering giant of thirty feet—and proceeded to literally smash the smaller ones under its feet. Index and Orsola were riding on his shoulders, with Orsola casting a spell that shrouded the two women divine protection. Sebastian wasn't cutting completely loose because he didn't want to throw them off, but he was still pretty wild.

From behind a bush, an explosion occurred as Kamijou passed it, tripping a wire. It was a claymore, releasing a mass of ball bearings that would tear apart the Imagine Breaker's body. Time slowed, as Kamijou's senses entered hyper-awareness, but his body couldn't keep up. It seemed like his death had come.

Time moved normally again and the ball bearings flew fast as bullets, meeting with a wall of compressed, thick iron sand rather than soft flesh. He was saved. Mikoto's eyes weren't on him, but the moment she sensed the claymore, she willed the iron sand to protect him. The wall exploded outward into multiple tendrils that launched themselves at the rest claymores hidden above and underground, destroying them before they could harm anyone else, and gathering the ball bearing, which were grinded by the vibrating iron sand and mixed in.

While Mikoto was essentially splitting her mind in order to effectively protect Kamijou and fight, she used her hands to control the tendrils of iron sand, which branched out and pierced nearly five dozen Kapua at once. A few _Ahi_ tried to mimic Pel, super-heating it to render the magnetism null, but a sharp gale of wind—followed by several more—sliced and diced them to pieces that were blown away. Lessar had been busy building a high Kapua body count of her own.

Birdway had finally found three of the puppet masters, her broadsword drawn. The three looked at each other, and then pulled out submachine guns and opened fire. What they seemed to have forgotten was that Birdway had once fought against a Saint on even ground, and she was just as fast; the bullets only flew through empty space, as a soft tap on the ground was the only sound she made when she landed behind them, her sword covered in what served as their blood. They fell apart into slightly less than a dozen pieces each.

The Kapua that were around her were no longer under control, but they were still hostile. She tossed the sword into the air—where it rotated several times—before she caught the handle and slammed the Telesma infused blade into the ground. An explosion of white energy incinerated the immediate area in an updraft.

Sebastian put down the two girls once he ran into several _Pokaku _in the same weight class as him. He used his massive legs to deliver a kick to one's chest, placing one of the creatures on the ground, and grabbed it by both legs before twirling it around and slamming it into the second one. The third one managed to land a blow on his face, but Sebastian quickly raised it into the air, and dropped it on his knew. It broke in half and the rest of it was stomped on—repeatedly.

"Oh my," Orsola muttered, "we really must work on his temper."

Meanwhile, Eight finally finished reconfiguring the M.E.S.D.O. The hexagons broke apart—leaving the core levitating in her hands—and began circling them using a magnetic field, each firing individual bolts of lightning while moving in a robotic pattern because of the immense calculation power of the Network. Anything that was missed by the iron sand was caught by lightning from multiple angles.

The slaughter went on, until a massive Kapua that stood on even ground as the mountain it was next to emerged. Everyone looked up at it. It was as if they were simple ants staring at a very tall basketball player. The sound of shattering glass quickly ended that though. Kamijou walked past it as if it wasn't even there and touched it with his index finger. They had no more time to waste on cannon fodder.

"Any sign of this Milu guy, or the Descendants?" Birdway asked once they all gathered, minus Accelerator. "We need to find them?"

"I've been tracking the source of the energy being used for the ritual," Index pointed towards the mountain on the island, "it's coming from in that mountain. There are three points, the majority of it being focused on the top."

So they ventured into the brush and towards the mountain.

Mikoto and Eight were invaluable. Their abilities allowed them to destroy the various traps hidden in the brush around the mountain. By the time they reached the base of the mountain, they all had to take a quick rest. Accelerator was nowhere to be seen, but occasionally they heard explosions coming from around the island, so they assumed he was just mopping up the rest of the Kapua.

Mark Space got off his cell phone and said, "They've had no luck in finding the core back on the main island."

Mikoto had forced all the metal and iron sand that she gathered into a container as small as her coin holster—reverse engineered using the same technique as the bag Lessar carried—for use later. You never know when you were going to need a little help. Lessar was stretching on the other hand, with a smile on her face from the battle—it had been awhile since she could cut loose. Eight was standing at a cave mouth that presumably led towards the two minor magical energies that Index had sensed.

"About that, Misaka says while—" whatever Eight was about to say was cut off by a fierce gale with hurricane force. Lessar was swept off her feet and crashed into Misaka and Eight, sending all three girls into an open cave mouth, which was immediately sealed off by a wall of thick ice. The wind died, and Kamijou's right fist shattered the ice, but the cave mouth collapsed on itself, sealing them in.

The girls slid down a smooth rock surface like a water slide, until they encountered a split and were separated. Eight and Mikoto went to the left, and Lessar to the right. The pathway twisted and turned, until they were dropped into a forty-foot fall from above. Mikoto released the gathered iron-metal sand and used it to cushion her and Eight's fall, while—in another chamber—Lessar landed on the ground—covered in snow—without much problem.

Red electric streamers were all around Mikoto and Eight, coming from the figure standing in front of them. It was Pel, who stared at them and said, "_Pele339—the one who reigns over volcanoes._" Heat poured out of her to the point it was a visible red aura.

Lessar faced Poli, who frowned before reciting her sorcery name, "_Haukea993—the one who invites others to a gentle, eternal sleep_." Frost and snow turned the chamber into a winter land.

Lessar pulled out her Steel Glove and proudly pronounced her sorcery name, "_Vindr159—one who stands with the wind._" This battle was now for keeps.

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

GREMLIN uses both science and magic, so I figured they'd have a couple of science weapons in the arsenal. Pel and Poli won't because they are pure magicians; they have a disdain for science in general.

Kamijou was only slightly useful with so much going on, I mean Imagine Breaker is great for small numbers, but with everything going on, he'd get hit by a stray attack or interfere.

Pele and Poli's sorcery names were "Volcanoes" and "White Snow" in Hawaiian, while Lessar's was "Wind" in Norse. I figured rather than give them Latin sorcery names I'd stick with more exotic names.

Okay we're approaching the final battle now. No one gets away unscratched.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"No!" Kamijou groaned, digging through the rubble—trying to open a path to retrieve the girls.

Index and Orsola tried to tell him to calm down, but it took one slap from Birdway to get the message across. "There's no time for this!"

"But—" he started, before she grabbed his collar and yanked him closer.

"Our enemy is summoning a god that will bring the death toll skyrocketing, and only we have the power to stop them!" she said, as she shook him again, not including the fact that it would change the structure of society and make taking it all over more difficult. "We are on a battlefield. The dead lay where they fall until the very end."

The earth rumbled as battles inside the mountain took place, letting all of them know that they weren't dead yet, but the point was the same nevertheless. "If you feel anything for them, you'll steel your heart and climb to the top, so you can punch the one behind this—and the god if we're too late—in the face! We have no choice but to press on!" Birdway told him, slapping him once more for emphasis.

Kamijou howled at the loss of his allies—unable to do anything to help them but go forward.

Electric sparks illuminated the darkness with dancing streamers of red and blue. The screech of clashing thunder reverberated in the closed cavern. The atmosphere itself was wavering from heat, as if it were a mirage itself. In a picture of the first circle of Hell, standing opposite of each other, the pinnacle of Science and Magic faced off.

Pel was not to be underestimated. Even without the support of the Kapua, the revealing of her sorcery name made the fight from before seem like a kiddy brawl. The moment she declared it, spiraling rings of flames appeared on her fingertips.

"Burn!" she screamed, and the rings were launched—growing in size until they were burning wheels. A quick shot of the railgun and the subsequent wind pressure had hit the rings and blown the flames that weren't extinguished off course.

Dozens of hexagonal tiles rotated around Pel, throwing lightning at her from different angles, like they were attack drones from a certain mecha anime. They were no more than a distraction, and no greater attack could be launched due to the lack of space. With a wave of her hand, a fierce gale blew them off track and the lightning gouged out the surroundings.

Sweat drenched the electromasters, their clothes were soaked. The smell of ozone gradually rising set a time limit for the battle. While Lessar had shown that some magicians were able to survive temporarily without oxygen before, Mikoto and Eight had no such fortune. In addition to the fact that the heat was becoming unbearable in the confined space, this was literally the worst place possible for them to fight.

Not waiting for them to have a chance at counter attacking, Pel scattered a fine, red powder in the air and willed the wind to carry it forward. Mikoto called forth the iron-metal sand she had used to cushion her fall, and had it form a thick sphere of protection around them. The red powder combusted into a roaring flame that licked the protection Mikoto had thrown up—eventually causing Mikoto to drop it, in order to smother the flames and extinguish them.

Some of the sand was then used to form twenty-five clumps and sent flying at Pel. Pel prayed to her ancestor—not hoping for a miracle, but as a form of self-hypnosis—and her eyes burned with power. A wall of lava blocked the sand and was sent forward.

Mikoto and Eight combine their abilities to create a net of lighting that speared through the stone above and around the wave to disrupt it, allowing Mikoto to create a whirlwind of black and silver sand, buffeting the lava to peter it out.

Electric spears formed in a ring around the Descendant of Pele, crackling with power. She took aim and stomped on the ground. Like the hammer of a gun, the electric spears were sent towards Eight, who wouldn't be able to shrug it off as easily as Mikoto. The spears would redirect themselves to attack the Sister from all angles, moving faster than possible for a person from the Science Side to even dream of avoiding, and skewer her—even with Mikoto standing in front of her.

Time slowed once again.

And Mikoto's eyes became electric blue.

It started simple, using her electromaster abilities to give herself an electric massage. Then it became more advanced, slowly and slowly encroaching on her nervous system. It was something she kept to herself and developed further and further, only reaching a level where it could be performed at the risk of brain damage.

Using her personal reality to fire her brain synapses five times faster than normal, Mikoto's reaction time skyrocketed, and her brain was able to process the full amount of information from her senses. But all it would take was one mistake in her calculations, one error in judgment, or even being in that state for a fraction of a second longer than possible, and she would fry her own brain. She surpassed the natural limitations of the human mind by lighting the fuse to a bomb, which would explode if she didn't cut the fuse soon enough.

It was an insane technique that only the strongest Electromaster could perform. A technique she had sealed away out of self-preservation. And now, to protect her sister, she would unleash it.

_Five Over: Spark Drive_.

Mikoto—running the risk of frying her nervous system—used her abilities of electro-perception to sense where the electricity would flow, control in order to slow them down and reposition them, while using _Spark Drive_ to further speed up her reaction time. She twisted, grabbing the first electric spear, and used it knock the rest off course with a single arched swing and electrical discharge. Then she threw the electrical spear back, with a scream accompanying the toss.

Sensory overload kicked in just before the explosion from the attack, and she lost her ability to register sounds for a second. She was unable to hear Eight's screams for her to move, as a stalactite fell towards her. In desperation, Eight unleashed the M.E.S.D.O and had the individual hexagons create a ceiling to protect her.

Pel controlled the wind and swung her fist like she was punching the air. Eight felt the blow as if another Pel was standing in front of her. It was followed by a directed, forceful blast of wind that knocked her into a thin stalagmite, which broke apart when she hit it. The Sister did not move again, and the M.E.S.D.O fell apart—the core in her hands.

Mikoto summoned the iron-metal sand and formed a shield to protect the fallen girl, exploding it outwards and branching into fifty tendrils that splintered even further. Thin threads of vibrating minerals chewed through the stalagmites, walls, and stalactites, sending stone crashing down all around the Descendant, who chopped the air diagonally with her hand.

The wind became visible, as a blade formed. It sliced through the stalagmites in the way like they were nothing. The razor gale cut into Mikoto's shoulder as she turned to dodge—narrowly avoiding having her arm sliced off using _Five Over: Spark Drive_ once again. For a brief moment, she saw red and collapsed on the ground.

The flames continued to burn, feeding off the oxygen that was becoming thinner and thinner. Mikoto's sister laid on the stone floor, breathing dryly and fading with each breath. Although she expected nothing less than what Lessar told her about how serious magicians got once their sorcery name were declared, it really sank in here.

They were going to _die_ here, if she didn't do something.

Maybe it was the from the pain of the wounds she received, maybe it was the delirium from the heat, or maybe it was her dying brain's final thought of salvation, but she decided to bet everything on the next three moves and stood proudly.

"Why won't you just die!" Pel screamed, scattering more of the combustible powder and entrapping them in a ring of flames.

Mikoto unleashed all the iron-metal sand she had left in the container, and willed it into the form of giant stakes. They fell all around Pel and—even though they were beginning to fall apart in clumps from the magnetism-disrupting heat—trapped her inside of that area for at least three seconds.

Mikoto gathered all of the electricity she could and condensed it into the form of a dense, heavy, and hard ball of lightning—three times the size of her fist. With a roar unbefitting an Ojou from Tokiwadai, she threw it at Pel as hard as she could. The magician caught the attack with her hands, but was sent skyward for the effort.

That was two moves. Now it was time for the finale.

Gathering all the iron-metal sand she could, she flipped a single tile from the M.E.S.D.O into the air and coated it until it was a sphere with a three foot diameter. Clenching her right fist as she had seen Kamijou do so many times, she one upped him by coating it with iron-metal sand as well. She chambered her fist back as the sphere fell down.

Mikoto didn't want to resort to this. She wasn't a killer, but she was now on a battlefield. This wasn't some brawl between Espers that could be resolved with a few blows; it was kill or be killed. Lessar warned her about going easy, and she had been right. While the magician would probably survive what would happen next, anyone else would most likely have been killed.

Still, she wouldn't forget this moment. All the events leading up to it were set in stone the moment she decided to follow that boy—No, young man would be more appropriate. No one who does what he does and faces what he faces could be called a boy. But for the sake of her sister, who was barely clinging to life, and the sake of staying next to the one she loved, she shattered that naive innocence she held like an illusion.

She would never forget the moment she seriously shot to kill another human being.

A few tears fell from her eyes, as she used her coated fist and struck the sphere with an electrified blow. The electricity flowed and activated the tile, strengthening the bond between it and the sphere-coating it was in, making it as hard as stone. Leaving a translucent, orange tube-like trail behind, the ultimate railgun was launched at the airborne magician.

The magician's eyes were wide, as the blow struck her head-on and launched her—along with the flames and heat that were caught in the updraft—through the solid stone that made up the mountain.

###

Crystalline spears fell from the sky, shrouded by the pure white blanket of infinite snow that howled in the raging winds—in other words, a localized blizzard. A fearsome gale shattered the spears to shards and scattered them all over the frost and snow, as a black silhouette stood in the center of a twister, with red lines standing out against the black.

"Ugh…"Lessar moaned, breathing heavily with the effort it took to maintain the twister. It was only because of the protection of Ullr—also known as Ollerus when Latinized—the Norse god of snow, bows, and skiing, also the stepson of Thor himself that she wasn't freezing to death. The shield bracelet she was given by Bayloupe had runes to protect against the cold, as Ullr was also the shield-god as well.

What she wouldn't give to be able to rest somewhere warm, preferably a hot spring, maybe with a little company to help with the boredom. But such trivial thoughts had to end now. She had declared her sorcery name—no mercy was to be shown.

Grabbing the twister using her Steel Glove, she redirected it towards the Descendant before her. Poli had not gotten off unharmed from Lessar's attacks either. She had just as many superficial injuries and was unable to influence her mentally due to the focus on the battle. She exceeded at subtle manipulation, not pure mind control.

Raising a wall of ice, the twister was dispelled in multiple directions, washing over the snow and kicking up a puff of flakes. Lessar dashed to get a running start and leapt over the ice wall, her Steel Glove being used like a lance pointed downwards. Poli jumped back and narrowly avoided the shock wave that followed the impact.

Ice blades formed around Lessar and came crashing down. Using the Steel Glove, she swatted what she could into pieces and pressed forward; ignoring the cuts she received in the process. None of them were too deep anyway; she would be fine if she avoided the vitals being struck.

Under normal circumstances, she would have been a little more vain about her body being ruined, but not now. This was a duel to the death, and she'd rather live with a few scars—and possibly be pampered by Kamijou—than die in the snow filled cavern. Not that she wouldn't have the others at New Light do something about her skin being ruined though. Lancis was decent at healing.

The rumbling of the cavern was not due to their battle alone, but the subsequent battle in the next cavity over, between Pel and the Misaka sisters. Lessar worried about them, but first things first. Deal the magician in front of her. If she survived the battle but was injured to the extent that she couldn't stay awake, then Lessar would bind her and be done with it rather than finishing her off.

If not, oh well.

Poli crafted an ice javelin and stepped in to confront Lessar. Flashes of streaking, translucent blue were countered by steel gray strikes from the Steel Glove, which had focused the four points into a cone shaped spear point. The strikes reached the pinnacle of normal human speed, to the point where even a minor mistake in dodging could be fatal.

Yet, neither were ordinary humans—but magicians. Breaking through limits and smashing them to pieces was a requirement.

Fatal blows were unleashed on each side. Narrowly avoiding precise hits using their own weapon, while trying to land an equally precise strike, the young women threw away anything resembling a second thought and focused on piercing the opponent. It would have been a beautiful display, if not for the inherent violence, blood, and killing intent.

A strained grunt came out of Poli's mouth, as the steel lance invaded her territory. The small girl before her had far less reach that someone taller than her. The range—even with the Steel Glove—should have put Lessar at immense risk. Yet, even the strikes that should have left a gaping hole—fatal or not—in her tiny body seemed to slip off her like she was covered in oil.

The thoughts that surfaced to her mind were quickly suppressed when Lessar jumped and rotated a few feet in the air, placing her foot on the ice javelin as she fell and embedding it into the ground. A wide swing forced Poli to release it and dodge, before the lance carved out her throat and separated her head from her body. Stumbling back, the Descendant willed a multi-layered ice wall to appear before her and protect her from the magician.

Wrapping Lessar's body was a thin armor of conflicting wind, conditioned to be released upon the veiling of her sorcery name. Extending it to her Steel Glove in two layers and forcing them to rotate opposite of each other, it became a drill. With a heave, the drill spear flew towards the ice wall whose defenses could rival a fortress.

The sound of shattering ice was deafening, as the drill tore through it all and narrowly missed the Descendant, instead blowing her away from the force impact next to her. Before she could recover, Lessar had covered the distance and threw a side kick straight into her stomach, with enough force to send her twenty feet back.

Lessar grunted as she reached for her Steel Glove, sweat dripping down her head. The kick was enhanced with a rune, but strengthening her body was never easy when it came to physical combat. It felt as though the force she put into it was sent back and made her bones ache. Fighting while her lithe body was being strengthened placed a huge burden on it—fighting after this would be difficult for the rest of the day.

"Why?" Poli asked, staring at the magician before her. "As strong as you are, why did you fight to help the Monster of Science?"

"Hah?" Lessar look shocked for a moment. "You're asking that at this moment? We magicians follow our own path, regardless of what others think. I fought alongside him because it was the path I wanted to walk. "

"You," Poli's breathing got heavier all of a sudden, "fell for him, didn't you? To the extent you'd betray your own side? How foolish…"

"Is that so?" Lessar's grip tightened on the Steel Glove.

"In nearly every legend involving one who betrayed for love, they are in turn betrayed. From Medea to Gunnlod, your fate will be the same."

For a brief second, Lessar closed her eyes in thought. When she opened them, they showed more resolve than before. "So what?"

Poli was silenced by the rebuttal, clearly confused by it.

"I am someone who is true to themselves; I've never once lied to myself about my feelings or what I wanted to do with them. I want him to be safe, so I wanted him to be under the protection of the UK while benefiting it at the same time. Even if the world declares him its enemy, I will stand next to him, alone if I must.

"I know that I'm just another girl he saved, but that doesn't matter. If feeling the way about him I do makes me crazy, then I'd rather be insane, falling into a pit of false ecstasy, than to wake from that deranged dream. I know he would never intentionally betray me or any of the others he's attracted, and even if he did and it led to my death, it would be worth it."

Lessar was not the only one who felt that way. All those girls he's protected shared the same sentiments. Even if there was little chance of him falling in love with her, she wouldn't yield—even if she was called worse than Freya in her attempts—although, she'd be willing to share him with Mikoto and a few others.

"Besides," Lessar smirked, "one tale mentions that it was Gunnlod who helped him willingly, and he thought well of her in return."

Realizing that there was no changing the young girl's mind, Poli willed the snow to tumble toward her. Forming a tidal wave of snow and ice that would bury the dreaming romantic girl under a blanket of eternal sleep, Poli sought to end it all. "Then continuing dreaming for all eternity, inside the white winter's embrace!"

Staring down a wall of death, Lessar planted her feet firmly on the ground. Her mind flashed back to the moment the others from New Light saw her off on this assignment. It was only because of them that she could now stand up to the wall of death.

On her Steel Gloves were runes carved by each of them, their feelings and powers, all gathered into the weapon that stood as their symbol. It began to glow white. Its form shifted into a curved shape. Placing one knee on the ground, in her hands was the transformed Steel Glove—the Steel Bow.

The Steel Bow in her hands felt heavy. Lessar was never one to use this type of weapon, but Skadi was the name used by two figures: the giantess goddess who stood next to Ullr as the goddess of bow hunting, skiing, winter and mountains, and a man who lost a thrall that was buried under a snowdrift, murdered by a son of Odin. This symbolized them both—as well as Ullr—in one artifact.

Wind gathered and formed an arrow. Charging the arrow with as much magical energy as she could, the bow string felt as though it would snap when she pulled back on it. Around Lessar, a small spiral began to blow away the snow in a perfect circle.

"_Klofna Austrvegr Snær!_"Split the Snow! Lessar proclaimed, and the arrow was released.

The air howled as it was split in two. Though the wind arrow had no actual physical presence, the moment it was fired, the blizzard and snow were parted before the arrow that seemed to embody the force of all the winds. Realizing the legacy of the three beings of Norse that it was based on, no amount of snow or ice south of Fimbulwinter could stop it.

As Poli watched in disbelief, she failed to notice Lessar slip under her guard and finish the battle with a single kick. A somersault kick—enhanced by the Uruz rune—sent the Descendant into the air, where the wall was suddenly destroyed by what could only be describe as a ray of lightning that was followed by a blazing flame tongue. Smashing its way diagonally upwards through the stone ceiling, it dropped the Descendant of Pele's limp and weak body on top of her sister like a cast off.

They both fell onto the melting snow, unconscious.

###

"Whaaa—!" Index screamed, as the ray of lightning shot from the other side of the mountain into the sky, followed a pillar of fire that could rival an eruption.

"See," Birdway shrugged her shoulders at Kamijou, "I told you they'd be fine."

Climbing over what was left of the wall between the two chambers, Lessar waved to Mikoto. "Nice shot!"

Mikoto sighed, noticing the superficial injuries on Lessar's body. "Looks like you were involved in something too."

Lessar chuckled. "You look worse than I do. Just hang on a second; I'll take a look at your sister once I get these two bounded and—"

Lessar's irises shrunk and she drew back the bowstring, aiming towards Eight—or rather the man standing over her, with the M.E.S.D.O's core in one hand and a ritual dagger in the other. Dressed in black, with long dark hair that made him seem like woman, he smiled.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" he said, holding up the core he stole from Eight's unconscious body, the dagger positioned directly over her throat. "Well, I am busy so…"

He brought the knife down—ready to kill—when a bolt of lightning and a wind arrow blew him away…only to disappear like a mirage made of dark smoke. Lessar swore, her Steel Bow nocked and ready to fire again, when she heard a scream from the pair of Descendants. Her eyes widened once again at the sight.

"Master Milu," Poli began, tears in her eyes. The tears froze as they ran down her face and shattered once they hit the corpse of her sister. A clean puncture wound straight to the heart had killed the Descendant of Pele. "Why?"

Blood began to flow from Poli's mouth, the only visible sign she had been stabbed as well was hidden beneath her sister's body. Waking suddenly after feeling the man's presence, she tried to shield her sister when she saw the dagger that sought their blood as if it were alive. Poli awakened in time to cradle the falling body, and received a mortal blow as well, screaming in response to the betrayal.

"I needed the blood of a few gods—or their Descendants—to fully summon Kanaloa. From the very beginning, your sacrifices were necessary to ensure our victory and the downfall of the Science Side," he said, as his body began fading away. "They will not be in vain…"

The cavern suddenly started to shake. Mikoto's ultimate railgun had flown threw a great deal of it, making the whole section unstable. Stone began falling and would soon cause a cave in. Seeing that Poli would be dead within minutes from blood loss or the cavern collapse, he vanished completely, taking the core and the life of Pel—her sister soon to follow.

Mikoto grabbed her sister and ran to Lessar, who pointed in the direction of another cave mouth that would take them away from this unstable and collapsing space. When Mikoto handed her sister to Lessar, hoping to at least save Poli, a wall of ice appeared between the dying Descendant and the school girls.

"What are you doing?" Mikoto screamed, trying to destroy the ice with a few bolts. "This cavern is collapsing! You'll die!"

"I can't…" she shook her head and held her sister's body closer, "I can't accept mercy from the enemy." She hated the fact that she had to try and kill young girls who should be in school, but she refused to be saved by those on the side she fought against. Even dying and betrayed, she held one thing besides her sister close to her.

It was her pride as a magician, which told her to face her death with dignity and grace.

While she had no intention of trying to drag them to Hell with her, it was essential that she died as Milu had planned. Her death would summon the god to destroy the enemy that she had been taught to hate and had fought against. She had to die; otherwise her sister's death would be in vain as well.

"We have to go!" Lessar said, pulling Mikoto while carrying Eight's unconscious body towards the mouth leading out of the cavern. With one last look of the sorrowful scene behind the ice wall as they parted, the cavern crashed into itself and buried the Descendants.

"That was…" Mikoto started to say, but was unable to express just how…wrong that situation felt.

"Yeah," Lessar said, nodding in agreement. Betrayal wasn't uncommon in their world, but to see how it happened in front of her and led to such an end…it still left a bad taste in her mouth, even though she had been fighting with mostly lethal intent. Those two believed in what they were fighting for, and in GREMLIN, but they were just puppets on strings to that person—sacrifices to be made at the very end.

Enemies or not, it still felt cold.

He had to pay.

But first they needed to figure out where the heck they were.

###

Milu placed the dagger containing the blood of the two Descendants into the center of the Eye of Kanaloa ritual circle he had constructed, deep inside the mountain. He then placed the core inside a replica of one of the machines that was inside the Academy City Facility. It took bribery and manipulation to get the blueprints to build it ahead of time, but the core was one-of-a-kind and irreplaceable.

The actual site where Kanaloa would be summoned was the ocean, right off the edge of the mountain, which was bordering it. The magical energy at the top was a false ritual site—a diversion to lure those who could sense magic to the top, since bringing along the Imagine Breaker meant they couldn't just warp up there with him.

They'd never look inside the mountain, where the energy had been masked by the two Descendants. He would have to remember to have a memorial erected for those two as well. He didn't want to kill them, but for magicians goals came before personal feelings.

The room itself had a foot of thick steel between it and the rest of the mountain, a top-of-the-line security system, and several anti-magician measures in place. Along with the claymores, and the remodeling of a few magicians to support the use of massive amounts of Kapua, it had cost Milu's sponsors a small fortune to get everything set up.

But if it allowed GREMLIN to strike the heart of the Science Side, it was worth it.

The Eye of Kanaloa glowed blood red, waves of energy rippling from the circle. The machinery that the core was sealed in was now fully active and producing massive amounts of energy that would never decrease. It was then sealed in a twenty-layer barrier of magic that could regenerate, even faster than the Imagine Breaker could negate it—not that he could reach here.

Yes, they were that prepared to deal with him.

Now all that was left was to get rid of Birdway and the Monster of Science.

###

A sense of malevolence washed over Birdway and the others.

"Damn!" Birdway swore, gnashing her teeth. "We were tricked!"

"Naturally," Milu said, space warping in front of Birdway as he appeared. "We've planned for your interference for quite some time. Long before you fished the monster out of the Arctic Ocean."

Milu snapped his fingers. A magic circle appeared beneath the magicians and sealed them away in a cylinder of light. "Forced teleportation," Milu smiled. "Kanaloa will welcome you now."

The magicians' bodies began to break apart and vanish. Index looked over towards Touma, who was running towards them. With placing her hand on the glass-like cylinder, he almost reached it when she called for him.

"TOU—" Index never finished, as the forced teleportation spell spirited them away before he could reach it. With that, the Imagine Breaker was separated from them all, leaving the rest to fend off an angry god, while he had to face off against Milu.

Kamijou clenched his right fist.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

"Why?" Kamijou asked the magician standing in front of him. "Why go through all of this?"

"What? You're expecting a confession?" Milu asked in response, pulling out a new ritual dagger. "Like I had some sob story that your words could soothe? Hate to break it to you, but there's nothing for us to discuss."

There was a story behind his actions, like the majority of magicians; he too had a reason to turn to the backdoor known as magic. But he would not tell that to an enemy. Milu's eyes had the resolve of a professional magician.

He would not be dissuaded from his goal. "I'm just trying to call down a god to destroy the enemy."

Despite not knowing what drove him, Kamijou had been accustomed to seeing the eyes of those who had fallen down the wrong path for one reason or another. He recognized that someone needed to raise their fist to correct the man before him.

"Whatever twisted and tragic illusion is pushing you to go so far…I'll shatter it!" Kamijou said, balling his hands into a fist.

"Hmph," Milu smirked. "Try it if you can."

###

The only way to described what happened once the ritual had finished was…_wrong_.

The skies moaned in pain, as if being twisted by an unbearable presence. The world inverted, time compressed and then expanded. As if the big bang and big crunch happened altogether, the universe collapsed on itself and then was recreated; the only difference was that _something_ had begun falling from the darkened sky.

That _something_ could only be described in words outside the human language. In a poor attempt of describing it in a manner that could be envisioned by the human mind, it was coated in ink-like skin that had bubbles of darkness gurgling all over, with streaks of purple marring the completely black, wet finish. All of this was wrapped in layers of green and purple gill flaps that dripped poison that corrupted the sea surrounding it.

Writhing tentacles that had a base of eight somehow split into over a dozen tendrils on each one, and seven eyes that were black as the abyss opened all at once. The oval shaped head split in two, revealing a primordial pool at the bottom of a funnel-like opening. A piercing screech rang around the world as it touched down.

It was the decent of the dark messiah, as painted by the missionaries. The once benevolent being was now an eldritch abomination that surpassed the nightmares of mankind. The worst end result of being twisted by the influence of the one religion encroaching upon another.

The corrupted god, Kanaloa, had arrived.

Everyone stared in silent shock and fear, as one of the greatest threats the world ever faced was about to be unleashed upon them. Except Mark Space, who only had three out of character words:

"We. Are. Screwed."

###

The descent left a crushing atmosphere of dread that even the girls inside the mountain could feel. Mikoto and Eight subconsciously released large sparks of electricity from the momentary lack of control over their personal realities, due to the sheer amount of fear they felt.

"Oh, this is bad," Lessar said, barely holding herself together from exhaustion, now that the adrenaline had worn off. "This apocalyptic feeling…it's Kanaloa after being corrupted…"

"Sh-shouldn't we do something to help the others?" Mikoto couldn't stop the subconscious trembling. She once compared the thought of the god being like a bomb. That was an understatement, like saying that the Archangel was just strong. This was something that would end the world and everything on it. "Do we go fight it?"

"No," Lessar said, clenching her Steel Glove. "If we fight, we'll die for no good reason. We find where that core is, and we strip Kanaloa of its anchor before we do anything else."

"There's an electromagnetic signal coming from further inside the mountain, Misaka says while searching for an exact point."

"They would need equipment to properly use the core, wouldn't they?" Mikoto guessed.

"Alright," Lessar took a deep breath before hardening her will to move forward. "Lead the way."

###

"NUOOOOOHH!" Kamiijou roared, as his right fist flew towards Milu's face. With a pop and a puff of smoke, the magician vanished and the fist flew through empty space. Kamijou eyes shifted, until Milu appeared behind him with a pop and swung the dagger down.

The dagger drew an arc, as Kamijou twisted his body and fell while striking. His right fist was launched at the magician, but it barely had any power behind it. Milu vanished before the dagger or fist could contact their bodies.

Kamijou got back on his feet and charged at the magician, who reappeared in the distance. The fierce god's presence caused the land to shake, as loose boulders from the mountain began to roll down the side and past them. Kamijou was in full sprint when Milu disappeared and reappeared in front of him, the dagger extended to penetrate his throat.

Unable to stop and inches from meeting death, Kamijou used his left hand to intercept the blade. The dagger penetrated his left hand thoroughly, and Kamijou let out a scream before cutting it short through sheer effort, grabbing Milu with it. He roared, as his right fist contacted Milu's face.

The sound of shattering glass—signaling the destruction of the teleportation spell woven on his body—was followed by the sound of a body hitting the ground and a grunt. Kamijou grabbed the knife and pulled it out. The hand was twitching and he could barely clench it because of the pain.

Milu was recovering quickly from the heavy punch, but began preparing an anti-impact spell just in case. When Kamijou saw this, he started to run over to knock him out. His path repeatedly interrupted by rolling boulder's as the others faced Kanaloa. He had to go help them.

Milu grabbed a nearby rock and chucked it at Kamijou, nailing him above the eye and breaking the skin. Blood flowed from it, along with pain that accompanied a quick flash in Kamijou's eyes. When the Imagine Breaker stumbled, Milu threw another one that hit him in the shoulder and got on his feet.

With his means of teleporting via a spell cast on his body now smashed, Milu grunted and reached behind his back. Kamijou was dashing forward when common sense told him that the magician was pulling out another weapon. So he kicked off the ground to the right, narrowly avoiding a bullet in the head. Milu had drawn a revolver.

Now, while most magicians wouldn't be caught dead using such a modern, science weapon, GREMLIN had very little concern for that train of thought—only the fact that Milu was more comfortable with his dagger stopped him from using it before. Now, the revolver was enchanted to summon bullets when the trigger was pulled and all the chambers were empty, but a good shot would kill the Imagine Breaker regardless. Let it never be said that Milu came unprepared.

Nevertheless, Kamijou charged—not forward of course, but at an angle—at the magician. Rule #1 of gun defense: stay off the axis of the weapon. Kamijou couldn't dodge bullets, but he could keep moving so the barrel wouldn't line up perfectly and hit him, even if only by a bit. Really, Kamijou was lucky for once that the enemy didn't have some military training, and the occasional boulder interfered with his aim, or he would have been royally screwed.

Kamijou swore that if he survived this, he was going to get some CQC lessons from Tsuchimikado, even if he had to beg.

The ground shook again and threw off Milu's next shot, while subsequently tripping Kamijou, sending him into a roll. He scooped up as much loose dirt and rocks as he could in a single pass and threw all but one stone at Milu, catching him in the face. Not being fooled by the basic trick, he fired at body height towards where Kamijou was—narrowly missing him by an inch.

Because of the loud rumbling from the battle with Kanaloa, Milu couldn't listen for Kamijou's steps and he still couldn't see with the dirt in his face, but the moment he heard one loud thump against the ground, he fired to his left—aiming above the step to strike the body. Luckily, Kamijou threw the remaining stone over that way while he went to Milu's right.

Kamijou didn't know fancy fighting moves, but he did know how to disarm someone. Instead of his trademark punch to the face, he placed his right leg behind Milu's, braced the arm with the gun, and _then_ nailed him in the face hard enough to shift his weight back and trip him. As Milu fell, Kamijou raised his knee and it caught Milu's elbow while he pressed down against the braced arm.

The sudden shock caused Milu to drop the weapon, and Kamijou picked it up with his right hand—shattering the enchantment—before tossing it as far as he could. Milu wiped his eyes clean and threw a punch of his own—apparently not afraid to mix it up with his fists either. The blow caught Kamijou in the ribs, stinging a bit, but not breaking anything.

Kamijou retaliated with a punch to the face, and Milu stumbled back, before kicking Kamijou below the belt, which put him on his knees and nearly caused him to vomit. Milu grabbed a decent sized rock and tried to bash his skull in, but Kamijou tackled him to the ground and got another shot in, blacking the magician's eye.

Milu managed to shake him off though, and fell back. Both men were bleeding and battered, but neither was ready to yield. Wordlessly, they charged each other.

###

The dark god howled.

Twisted by the thoughts of man, the being before them was lashing out at the small party that stood against it. The dark god unleashed a rain of dark strings, made of a thick ink-like substance. Flying through the air, they cut into anything they came into contact with and carved it like a turkey on Thanksgiving.

Mark Space scattered numerous One of Sword cards and jumped between them, narrowly avoiding a skewered death that would leave him ripped apart into chunks, which would drown in the nightmarish ink. Birdway relied on her speed and broadsword, using the Telesma filled blade to cut down the strands with an arched swing. Those two would survive the storm of death unharmed.

Index and Orsola, on the other hand, could only watch in terror. No defense they could summon would protect them. Even with Sebastian in front of them, it wouldn't save them. The Kapua it overshadowed would be torn apart and run through.

As if an angel had flapped its wings and loose feathers rained down, holy white plumage floated down around them. When the harbingers of destruction touched the feathers, they forcibly bent at a sharp angle before smashing into the ground with the sound of an explosion, throwing up towers of loose debris and dust that overtook the girls ten times over.

When the wind blew, the girls were revealed to be safe—cradled in each other's arms—as a pure white figure levitated above them by over a hundred feet, wings expanded and halo shining. Looking at the god before him, as if it was beneath himself, the figure pouted.

Accelerator had awakened and arrived, after cleaning up the rest of the trash.

Now, under normal circumstances, the act of an esper becoming an angel would have left a lot of people declaring blasphemy and heresy, but given the threat even Birdway had to say she was grateful.

Kanaloa roared.

The murderous intention became three times as thick. Raising the numerous tendrils that were attached to its body, it directed them towards the embodiment of all its hatred. It was because of the Christian influence he became twisted, therefore, the image of a Christian angel was the enemy that must be destroyed.

The tendrils were like spears, splitting the air. The white feathers were scattered and flew towards the inky tendrils, each single one capable of redirection. However, against the size and mass of the tendrils, the best they could do was slightly bend them at an angle. The laws the god followed were not magic or science, therefore perfect redirection was impossible to perform. Of the numerous tendril spears, more than half were still flying towards the angel-class esper.

However, a flash of steel wrapped in Telesma slashed through most of them, and golden-laced wind finished the rest off. Birdway and Mark Space took the offense, using Telesma infused spiritual tools and spell.

"_Summon Explosion: Hundred Bullets!_" Birdway proclaimed, gathering the clusters of Telesma and firing them at the raging deity. The bullets punched a hundred holes from which slime poured out. Inside, they detonated and further tore apart the being.

"Haha…not so tough now…" Birdway started to gloat, but the damage shrunk and torn flesh mended within the space of a fraction of a second. "…are you?"

The ripped apart tendrils reform by bursting from the stump, like a Hydra's head. Covered in slime, the tendrils enclose on the loli from all angles, as a black ink was sprayed towards her for good measure. Birdway was turned into Swiss cheese and then torn further apart, before being dissolved—

At least she would have been, if not for her faithful subordinate.

A storm of wind blades from numerous Three of Sword cards tore through the tendrils, as a One of Sword card placed him squarely between her and the splotch of incoming ink. The Eight of Sword card was infused with Telesma and created a golden-laced, spiraling shield of wind that splattered the acidic ink below, dissolving the landscape.

"Are…you alri—" he clenched his arm and winced in pain. A drop of the ink had touched his skin and chewed into it.

"Mark," Birdway spoke with some concern, attempting the stop the corrosion from costing her subordinate his arm and fend off Kanaloa's renewed assault at the same time. Kanaloa howled with indignant rage. The mad god summoned a cyclone that would swallow them.

Accelerator acted quickly, dispelling it with one flap of his wings. Index and Orsola could only watch on, this was out of their league by miles.

###

Kamijou coughed up blood. That last blow left the iron-like taste of blood fixed in his mouth, as the magician managed to get in a blow. At the same time Kamijou struck him in the head with his right hand, shattering the anti-impact spell

"Guah—!" Kamijou grunts. His fist has become sore and swollen from the strike. The human skull is not an ideal place to strike with the knuckles. Milu takes the chance to raise his fist to hit Kamijou with an uppercut.

Kamijou narrowly avoids it by stepping back, only to slip on a rock and lose his balance. That created an opening, and Milu took it. His leg went up in an arc and met Kamijou's chin. The blow twisted his head and darkness came.

Inside the void, memories came flooding to the surface.

The tears Mikoto once cried, unable to stop her sisters from dying on her own.

The look of relief on Orsola's face when she saw he was alright.

The moments he spent in Russia with Lessar, trying to save that innocent nun.

And the smile on Index's face he had seen too many times.

This man threatened to take all of it away. Kamijou roared, his focus pushing back the darkness and reawakening his senses, and he stood. "RRRAAAAHHH!" he cried, blood still trickling down his face, as he threw his fist forward once again.

The first hit landed. His right fist shattered whatever defenses Milu had left on him through magical means. Kamijou planted his feet and rotated his body for the second shot.

The second hit landed. His left fist jerked Milu's chin to the side, rattling his brain and disorientating him. The world went white, long enough for him to not see the third strike coming.

The third hit landed. His right fist struck the magician in abdomen, causing him to bend over. Kamijou shifted his right leg back and then sent it upwards for the next blow.

The fourth hit landed. His right knee smashed against Milu's jaw and blood poured from his mouth. The magician stumbled back while Kamijou went for the final blow.

The fifth and final blow landed. An uppercut to the broken jaw sent the magician skyward. His body landed on the ground and didn't move.

Kamijou fell to his knees from exhaustion. Finally falling into the darkness, he fell to the earth and laid still.

###

"Finally," Mikoto said, after the three of them managed to find Milu's room. Along the way, they had to deal with several traps that were clearly designed for magicians instead of espers, but ripping the steel doors down using magnetism was still difficult.

"Above us, says Misaka while pointing up."

The machine that the core was placed in had been lifted up as part of the ritual and placed inside the center of a shimmering sphere. Levitating through the use of magic, it was well beyond the reach of the espers. Lessar jumped up, but was repulsed by the shimmering air, and Mikoto tried to pull the machine down by using magnetism, but it didn't respond.

In desperation, she fired a railgun at it, only for the barrier to slow it down like it was in a ball of water. The hole it made closed up quickly and the barrier was restored to perfect form, with the hexagon tile used being dissolved. Mikoto sighed.

"A regenerating barrier using the properties of acidic water to slow and stop all intrusions," Lessar said, while using her Steel Glove for support. "I think we can penetrate it, but even three times the speed of sound won't do the job."

"Then why don't we use a coilgun to speed up nee-san's technique, asks Misaka?"

It wasn't impossible. Running a magnetic field and aligning the M.E.S.D.O tiles up properly could definitely work. It would outperform the railgun alone by miles.

However…

"If we use something too small, it would burn up before it even reached the core," Mikoto said.

"We'll use my Steel Glove," Lessar said. "I'll use the spell I did before to make it act like a drill, your sister can align the tiles, and you fire it as hard as you can."

Lessar nearly fell to her knees after trying to hand it to Mikoto. She only had it in her to use one more spell. After that, she wouldn't be able to maintain her consciousness.

With both the girls looking at her with concern in their eyes, she smiled. "There's no second chance. Everything rides on this last shot."

###

As if spontaneously melting, the fierce god gave birth to several black bubbles that slowly oozed down until they touched the earth.

The black, bubble-like orbs exploded out with a spurt of green slime, revealing writhing masses of tentacles. The inky, black skin that wrapped the masses of muscles were glistening underneath the black sun, running with trails of greenish-purple slime produced by the gills that seemed to spring up at random on the creatures. Their presence felt like living apocalypses that would spell the end of humanity.

The abominations writhed towards the two nuns, when Sebastian literally stepped on them. The owl used its new body to the fullest, crushing them thoroughly like a berserker. The golem was an engine of destruction, a tank on a battlefield.

However, strength alone was not nearly enough. The ones Sebastian smashed began gurgling like boiling water, bubbles of the slime began rising under the inky, tattered skin, until new monstrosities were born. Their numbers would never decrease using physical attacks.

Sebastian was soon overwhelmed, and the Kapua it possessed was ripped apart, forcing the owl out. Orsola caught Sebastian before the owl shattered upon hitting the ground. The white owl hooted softly.

As they closed in on Orsola and Index, no longer under the protection of Accelerator's power or Sebastian, spikes erupted from deep inside the creatures' tentacles, splashing the gelatinous slime out and onto the girls who looked on in horror. Spell Intercept would not save them now, the others were busy fending off Kanaloa, and Sebastian was no longer able to function.

As Orsola held Index tightly to cover the frightened girl's eyes, she silently prayed for the child to survive at the very least, willing to use her body to shield her. As if her prayers were answered, green lightning rained from the heavens, causing the creatures to writhe involuntary until they exploded like pus filled pouches and fizzled, as if they were being barbequed. Waves of cresting red and black fire rolled over the remains, devouring them hungrily until not even ashes were left, before consuming themselves.

Nothing was going to respawn from that.

"That was….Múspell Fire?" Index said, comparing the grimoires in her head until she found a case that perfectly described what she was witnessing. Flames that would spell the death of the gods in Ragnarok, hot as Hellfire, and commanded by the Fire Giants, it was insanely difficult to control.

"Sorry for the delay, but we really didn't want to get involved," Lancis sighed.

"Still, if we left this kind of thing alone, our country would eventually be swallowed by it," Floris muttered.

"Besides, this gives us a chance to one up Neccessarius," Bayloupe added, a smile running across her face. "Spawn of the corrupted god, prepare yourself! New Light has arrived!"

###

"Okay, is everyone ready?" Mikoto asked, coating her hand in the iron-metal sand once again.

"The spell…is com…pleted," Lessar said, before passing out next to Eight. The wind was rotating fiercely around the tip of the Steel Glove and would continue even while she slept.

"Ready, Misaka says while maintaining the system."

The spear was levitating inside a single coil made by ten hexagon tiles. Along the way to the core, the remaining tiles formed several more rings that would add to the speed. The spear would become a lance that would pierced the heart of the core and shatter what was thought to be indestructible—or at least get it away from holding Kanaloa to earth.

"Alright," Mikoto said as she charged her fist, simultaneously using magnetism to rip apart the steel around them. "FLY!"

She struck the Steel Glove and called down as much steel as she could to form a shell to shield them. The electric princess's lance drilled through the barrier like it was nothing, and acid rained down. The girls were only protected by the steel shell Mikoto had formed.

The drill tip made contact with the core, and took it even further into the air. The gray and yellow blur pierced the wall of the mountain with so much force; it tore through the entire mountain and leveled not only the room they were in, but at least half the mountain.

It was probably just good luck what happened next.

###

New Light had joined the fight. Using the flames that could rival Hellfire, they set the spawn of Kanaloa ablaze. The monstrosities writhed in agony, letting out squelching noises that were disturbing on more than one level. Their numbers continuously fell.

However, New Light did not have an infinite supply of the flames.

The act of retrieving the fire was a feat that was not easily accomplished. It involved literally creating a gateway from Midgard (Earth) to Musphelheim. From there, one had to bargain with a Fire Giant to gain the flames that were to be used in the war against the gods.

Such a ritual took a lifetime, and was set up by the predecessors who started New Light before Bayloupe became the leader. It was like she held onto one of the greatest weapons in the world, only to be used at the risk of annihilation by a threat so great, nothing else would suffice.

There was no guarantee that the abominations would have disappeared if they struck down the god. If that were the case, the respawning would make them indestructible and could lead to the end of the world. So, before they could spread, they had to be contained.

If Lessar weren't at risk, they may have allowed another faction deal with it. For all their fighting and teasing, the girls were tight knit and would never abandon each other.

Only a pinch of the flames remained, when the final spawn was reduced to nothing.

"That's all of them," Bayloupe said.

"Umm, girls," Lancis said, her body uncontrollably shivering from her magic alerting her of danger. "We have a problem!"

She pointed to Kanaloa, who had been fending off the three attackers. It was preparing to ooze several more black bubbles, creating more of the abominations. If it released them, then it would have been over.

Just then, the lance fired by Mikoto exploded out of the mountain and pierced through the fierce god. It howled in agony, its wound not healing from the damage. Realizing they could now damage it, Birdway, Mark Space, and Accelerator gave each other a look.

"_Time to end this,_" they all muttered.

Accelerator created a plasma storm and contained it using his power. Birdway gathered all the Telesma in her blade to the tip, energy spiraling in place as a giant orb. Mark Space scattered all his offensive tarot cards and unleashed a hailstorm of razor wind at the god.

All three of them threw the colliding forces at the god, where a reaction occurred due to the mixing of AIM based power, Telesma, and Magical energy. Accelerator scattered countless feathers that formed a rotating dome around the god, in order to restrain the blast from nuking everything within a thousand miles of it.

The Redirection Cage sealed in Kanaloa, who was dissipating into nothing—its flesh being burned and dissolving to the point where it wouldn't even be dust. Accelerator coughed blood as he maintained the calculations to manage the cage, while Mark Space and Birdway could only watch, having exhausted themselves to the breaking point.

As if his mind was glass, Accelerator heard it crack from the strain. His mind could possibly shatter from the effort. Nevertheless, he let out a howl as the chain reaction reached its final phase. Changing the cage to a column, the energy was released into the sky—parting the darkness—and into space.

"What…the…hell?" Accelerator said, falling from the sky like a bird whose wings had been clipped. His eyes met the god's, who was still there—if just barely. Kanaloa was gradually dissolving, but not gone yet.

Narrowing its eyes, Kanaloa shot tendrils at the three responsible for its current condition.

###

Milu clenched dirt as he regained consciousness. Breathing was difficult after taking that last strike. Raising his head, he saw the Imagine Breaker lying unconscious on the ground.

Strength entered his body, as he picked up a good sized stone and got to his feet. He could do little more than walk slowly; each step left him swaying and shot pain throughout his body. Still, he walked with the intention of crushing Kamijou's head.

Now that Kanaloa was fading, that one goal remained.

Mikoto had just climbed out of the protective shell she erected to protect the three once the Steel Glove was used. Climbing over a pile of rocks to reach the other side—in order to find help for Lessar and Eight—while tired, she felt movement through electro-perception and her eyes widened at the sight of Kamijou lying on the ground, motionless. Seeing the demented magician only a few feet away, ready to drop the stone, she reflexively shot him with a bolt of electricity.

Milu fell backwards, dropping the stone. The lightning loosened a certain memory that laid dormant deep inside Milu's mind. Like looking a movie from a projection reel, the past began to play on the landscape of his mind. Watching from a third person perspective, he saw what made him the man he was today.

###

"—?" a woman's voice tried to reach him, but the words didn't register. He could no longer recall the finer details of her face in memory, but he could never forget the gorgeous smile that appeared on her face. It out-shined the sun, as she called for him once again. "—?"

She was sick, from a disease that science could not cure. To save her, he abandoned science and searched for an elderly man who was once said to be a Kahuna. To save her, he went beyond the laws of science and opened the backdoor called magic.

Even then, she could not be saved. She had little more than a year left, and she wanted to spend it with him. The Kahuna passed away and left him one thing: the knowledge to summon a god.

Tirelessly, he toiled to obtain what was necessary. Then, tragedy struck, as the war began. He wanted nothing to do with it, but one of those countless, unnoticed battles had left her dying from a stray weapon of science.

She smiled one last time when he comforted her. That once brilliant smile was now tainted by the blood that ran down her mouth, as she drew her last breath. Holding the dead woman in his arms, a howl that embodied all the sorrow held by the magician named "–" echoed into the darkness.

She was all that mattered to him.

She had no relation to either side.

She was innocent, yet she had died.

Why should he care about this small world? The one he sacrificed the normalcy of daily life for no longer existed in it. All he sought was to use the power of a god to save the life of the one he loved, and science took that away from him.

"Never forgive," he said, blood running from his eyes. Forgoing a peaceful path, he discarded the name that the woman he loved had once called him and wiped it from his mind. His hatred of science became fixated on the Hero of the Science Side.

There were several paths outlined for him to walk, but to him there was only one path and he walked it without looking back or at any other path.

###

The magician refused to stop.

Holding a gaze that he would keep until the end, the magician who carried the weight of countless sacrifices clawed at the ground. He began literally dragging himself toward Kamijou until he could stand, set on killing him with his bare hands.

"Stop damn it!" Misaka swore, as she fired an even stronger bolt in front of the magician, who walked forward, only wincing as the electricity surged into him. Forgoing spells, he used his life itself as fuel to power the engine that was his body. That energy wrapped him as a flickering aura, repelling the lightning, as he fixed his sights only on Kamijou.

Mikoto tried to overwrite reality with her own personal reality once again, but she literally had nothing left to use. If she tried to overwrite reality now, it would crush her itself. Nevertheless, she tried, pushing her exhausted mind to the breaking point. As if an ocean was dropped on top of her mind, it was crushed by the pressure of the world. She fell with her sanity barely intact.

As she fell, she slid down the slope of the rock pile until she was on ground level with the magician and Kamijou. By the time she could even marshal the strength to sit up again, it was too late. The earth shook, as the magician loomed over the fallen hero, his hands in position to strangle Kamijou.

In a way, that determination reminded her of Kamijou.

Milu had suffered numerous injuries that should have stopped him. Milu had fought until he was at death's door, carrying a huge resolve that rivaled the Imagine Breaker's own. Milu went all out to do what was thought impossible.

Maybe it was the stress and exhaustion, but somehow she saw Milu as Kamijou—like his body was overshadowed by Kamijou's. As the pair of murderous instruments inched their way to the unconscious throat of the enemy, they shook from the sheer effort the task took. The image of Kamijou faded, as he wasn't a killer and wouldn't go this far, but the same resolve that he had to bring an ending where everyone was alive, was now being used to finish him.

Once his hand were wrapped around the Imagine Breaker's throat, he…just sat there motionless. His eyes were empty and glazing over, as if staring into the abyss that reflected the darkness of the path he walked. Even as the world around him crumbled, it no longer mattered.

The magician named Milu had passed into Lua-o-Milu—the land of the dead.

His goal, for which everything was sacrificed, came to nothing.

He passed away without accomplishing the end he sought.

Mikoto wasn't sure how to feel. Someone had just died in front of her, but their death ensured that the one she loved would still draw breath. Whether it was his time to die, or if it was her attacks that killed the magician, it didn't change the fact that he was dead.

The electric princess who wore a pure—if somewhat tomboyish—white dress of innocence was now covered in blood that dyed the dress crimson red. Maybe it was because she resolved to go through with it when she used her last attack against Pel, or maybe it was because she was simply too tired now and her actions hadn't caught up to her. Either way, she felt very little about it.

And it terrified her.

How many had fallen into the darkness because they felt nothing. Her pure innocence that separated her from the darkness had now been lost in the deep red. How long until she would become an indiscriminate monster? How would she see the world from now on as a killer, even if the only other choice was to do nothing and watch Kamijou die?

Was it for him that she murdered another? Should she blame him for her coming fall to the darkness? Should she make him take responsibility?

The dark thoughts that emerged from guilt and confusion took an immediate backseat when the ground crumbled around where those two were. The magician's corpse and Imagine Breaker both began to fall into the void.

Mikoto was too tired and could do nothing. No one would be able to reach him in time. It seemed like the Imagine Breaker would disappear from the world once again.

"Some…"Mikoto cried to the heavens, as tears fell from her heavy eyes, "SOMEONE SAVE HIM!"

_As you wish, child with power that could one day rival Haikili_, a voice rang in her head, almost as if on a different frequency.

A silver translucent tendril shot past Mikoto and wrapped itself around Kamijou's waist, avoiding his right hand. It protected his body from the collapsing debris as it pulled him up. Mikoto looked over her shoulder, to see Kanaloa in a new light.

No longer corrupted by the ritual and fading from the damage inflicted, it had a truly divine presence now. The horror that was difficult to look at before was now too beautiful for mortals to stare at. With the waves of merciful power passively emanating from the god, it sent tears to their eyes.

Kanaloa placed the boy in front of her.

_The power that seals that which lies inside him will not permit the little one to heal him, but his life is not in immediate peril_, Kanaloa said by reaching out to her mind.

"Little one?" Mikoto asked absentmindedly, apparently still in shock a god was holding a telepathic conversation with her. For her first real venture into the Magic Side, that wasn't too bad.

A tendril pointed towards the others, being healed by the same little girl that saved her and Eight before. It was the Kahuna Kapua of Koleamoku, standing over the bodies of all those who fought on her side, including Lessar—who was about to get spanked by Bayloupe for getting involved in something so dangerous and forcing her to use the Múspell fire—and Eight.

Having apparently finished on the others, she walked over to Mikoto and nodded, before extending her hands. A wave of relief washed over Mikoto's tired body. The injuries in both her body and heart were being relieved.

She fell to her knees next to the unconscious Kamijou when the little girl had finished.

_Regardless of how the one who summoned me passed away, do not run from the emotions you feel. If you bury them, then they will drag you into the depths as well._ Kanaloa's body began to completely fade.

_And now, we shall return to our place_. _May the sea and winds fortune you all, as thanks for freeing me._

They both vanished.

The girl and the god were no longer within the mortal realm. All the damage done by their presence also disappear—like it never occurred at all. Tranquility returned, as birds flew in the brilliant blue sky.

Still tired from everything that happened, and finally able to let herself relax, Mikoto fell asleep on Kamijou's chest—which she noticed for the first time was extremely broad.

Those emotions that bombarded her could wait for now.

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

Well, that was the final battle. One more chapter and Lightning and Wind will end. I'm thinking of a sequel, but easier said than done. Plus I want to do one for Fate/Extra, so maybe after NT3 is released.

Kanaloa's summoning was supposed to impose on the readers exactly how heavy a presence a god would have, especially one painted as a being of evil. Having the universe rewrite itself to accompany the being was a figurative method of speaking—it didn't really happen, but it felt like it did.

Milu was determined, and while Kamijou has some ability to reach his opponents and offer them redemption, you can't help everyone. No matter how tragic Milu's past may or may not have been, he knew the road he was going down and he never looked back—like I said, you take that kind of conviction with you to the grave.

One of the themes in this story is Resolve. Mikoto resolved to do what it took to protect her sister and follow Kamijou, Lessar would stand by him even if she had to do so alone, Kamijou resolved to follow through on his belief no matter how much he gets hurt, Accelerator didn't have that kind of resolve as a villain, but once he obtained it to protect Last Order, he grew white wings and he wouldn't look back if he died defending her. All of them are willing to die for their beliefs and just as they couldn't be dissuaded, neither can their enemies who hold that same resolve towards a different goal.

Kamijou's fight with Milu was flat out dirty and bloody, as expected when in a fight to the death using your fists and whatever else you could pick up—Kamijou is a brawler after all. The "fist to the face equals instant knock out" isn't as easy as you think. You need to rattle the brain hard enough with the strike, forcing it to reboot, which is difficult unless you strike with something like a hook. The human skull is fairly adept at taking head on blows, not angled blows.

Power level wise, Accel is at Gabriel's level after awakening, but his power hasn't been shown yet. Considering it took him, Superman, FUZE=Kazakiri, the Imagine Breaker, a ton of cannon fodder, and other things to bring an Archangel down. I make no attempt to gloss over the fact that they didn't so much as win this battle, as they survived long enough to the have the anchor destroyed and Kanaloa no longer wanted to go on a rampage. The corruption vanished when they pretty much trashed the Eye of Kanaloa and a good deal of the mountain. I was thinking about having Kamijou try to punch it, but that'd be too easy.

Haikili is the Hawaiian god of lightning and thunder.


	13. Epilogue

Epilogue

"So, are you still feeling troubled by having a hand in Milu's death?" Birdway asked Mikoto, who was taken off guard by the unexpected question—especially since she didn't tell her beforehand. "Oh come off it. I analyze charismatic people for a living. If I could figure out Aleister, what chance did you have?"

The girls were all at the beach, with the exception of Eight and Orsola. Kamijou was resting after he got out of surgery, performed by the frog face doctor—who came on a jet owned by Academy City. Index was sitting with Floris and Lancis, both of whom were staring in amazement at the sight of a small girl eating at least her own weight in food.

As for Lessar and Bayloupe…

"I," Bayloupe raised her hand and slapped it against her bikini covered butt. "Told you," she hit it again, and the white skin became peach colored as Lessar let out a whine. "About getting involved," she slapped it hard again, and the peach skin became crimson red. "With things like this!"

She continued to spank the girl, even with onlookers in the area, which added to the embarrassment of it all. She hoped that it would make the lesson stick, but that was too optimistic in all honesty—especially since she planted a kiss on Kamijou while he was asleep only an hour ago. Had she not walked in, Kamijou may have very well lost his purity without knowing it.

"I could tell you that it had to be done, but you know that already Misaka-san." Birdway said, drawing a magic circle in the sand that made everything a 3 meter diameter, but her voice, sound like static—to prevent anyone from hearing them. "What you fear the most is becoming a monster that kills indiscriminately, not feeling a thing."

Mikoto was silent, closing her eyes and replaying that moment when she first shot to kill Pel and struck Milu with lightning. She couldn't shake the immense regret she felt, even knowing it had to be done. It was just…so cold…

"In my experience, it was because you were caught up in the moment in the battlefield," she said, simplifying what she really thought. No need to confuse her more than she already was. "Once you get back home, that's when it will really hit you, so you should stay next to the boy. You'll need to discuss things with him and have him bring you peace of mind—after all, whose words would affect you better than those of the one you love."

Birdway looked up at the blue sky. "If you try to bottle those feeling up, you really will drown in the darkness and become what you fear."

Mark Space approached Birdway, who erased the circle with her foot, holding a phone. "Your sister is on the line, something about running into 'that man with the red hair.'"

Birdway sighed.

###

Accelerator was resting on Yomikawa's couch after making it back on his own power. Worst was rubbing her butt, which was even redder than Lessar's after Yomikawa whooped it with a riot shield, while Last Order was sleeping on top of him, finally smiling.

He thought about how much trouble and pain he went through, redirecting that huge blast beyond escape velocity. But when he saw her smile, he only had one thought.

_It was worth it_.

###

Standing over a makeshift memorial for those who died in the facility attack, Eight placed the remaining tile from the M.E.S.D.O on top of it. With the core gone, and the rest of the tiles being reduced to slag from the last attack, there was no point in holding onto it. In time it could be rebuilt, but those who originally developed it wouldn't return from the afterlife.

"Good Evening," Orsola's voice came from over her shoulder. Eight turned to see the nun there, a somber smile on her face, with the owl perched on her shoulder. "Did you make this memorial?"

Eight nodded silently, her thoughts vividly flashing with memories of those who were her family. At first, she only saw the warm smiles on their faces. Then, those smiles and warm feelings became bitter and cold, as she saw each of them dying. It over took her, tears began flowing from her gray eyes and down her tanned face.

She kneeled in front of the grave and began crying. Orsola bent down and cradled her like a mother, not minding the dirt and tears staining her white, angelic clothes. Rocking the broken girl back and forth, she whispered in her ear words of comfort. The girl felt the same warmth from Orsola that her fallen companions held.

###

Later that night, Kamijou, Eight, Index, and Mikoto were all on board a plane that was flying towards Academy City at a ridiculous speed. Yet, they were all resting without any signs of interruption.

While GREMLIN had been defeated in Hawaii, that was only a small portion of the organization. Their insanity was only confirmed to be worse than everyone thought. Summoning a god was just plain crazy, all things considered. Luckily, Kanaloa had been benevolent once the ritual was destroyed by Mikoto's attack.

Still, the battle was not over. One day, Kamijou would be dragged into fighting again. When he goes, Index and Mikoto would follow him. He would not be fighting alone, but nevertheless, this only made the things he had to protect even harder to actually do so. They would be on the frontlines as well.

So the brave girls slept well, each clinging to him subconsciously. Their fight would continue another day.

But for now, they rest.

END

* * *

><p>Notes:<p>

And we're done. For now. I might follow up after NT3 is completed, dealing with another group like the Freshmen in AC, and a short story about Stiyl and Patricia Birdway.

It took about 2 or 3 months, but it was worth it.


End file.
